Fiat Money Inflation in France Part 6

[Footnote 60: See Von Sybel, vol. iii, p. 173.]

[Footnote 61: See Thiers; also, for curious details of measures taken to compel farmers and merchants, see Senior, Lectures on "Results of Paper Money," pp. 86, 87.]

[Footnote 62: See Von Sybel, vol. iv, p. 231.]

[Footnote 63: See Von Sybel, vol. iv, p. 330; also tables of depreciation in "Moniteur"; also official reports in the White Collection; also Caron's "Tables," etc.]

[Footnote 64: For a lifelike sketch of the way in which these exchanges of _a.s.signats_ for valuable property went on at periods of the rapid depreciation of paper, see Challamel, "Les francais sous la Revolution," p. 309; also Say, "Economic Politique."]

[Footnote 65: For a very complete table of the depreciation from day to day, see "Supplement to the Moniteur" of October 2, 1797; also Caron, as above. For the market prices of the _louis d'or_ at the first of every month, as the collapse approached, see Montgaillard. See also "Official Lists" in the White Collection. For a table showing the steady rise of the franc in gold during a single week, from 251 to 280 _francs_, see Dewarmin, as above, vol. i, p. 136.]

[Footnote 66: See "Memoires de Thibaudeau," vol. ii, p. 26, also Mercier, "Lo Nouveau Paris," vol. ii, p. 90; for curious example of the scales of depreciation see the White Collection. See also extended table of comparative values in 1790 and 1795. See Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, pp. 223-4.]

[Footnote 67: For a striking similar case in our own country, see Sumner, "History of American Currency," p. 47.]

[Footnote 68: See Villeneuve Bargemont, "Histoire de l'economie politique," vol. ii, p. 229.]

[Footnote 69: See Von Sybel, vol. iv, pp. 337, 338. See also for confirmation Challamel, "Histoire Musee," vol. ii, p. 179. For a thoughtful statement of the reasons why such paper was not invested in lands by men of moderate means, and workingmen, see Mill, "Political Economy," vol. ii, pp. 81, 82.]

[Footnote 70: See Von Sybel, vol. iv, p. 222.]

[Footnote 71: See especially Leva.s.seur, "Histoire des cla.s.ses ouvrieres," etc. vol. i, pp. 219, 230 and elsewhere; also De Nervo, "Finance francaise," p. 280; also Stourm, as already cited. The exact amount of _a.s.signats_ in circulation at the final suppression is given by Dowarmin, (vol. i, p. 189), as 39,999,945,428 _livres_ or _francs_.]

[Footnote 72: For details of the mandat system very thoroughly given, see Thiers' "History of the French Revolution," Bentley's edition, vol.

iv, pp. 410-412. For the issue of _a.s.signats_ and _mandats_ at the same time, see Dewarmin, vol. i, p. 136; also Leva.s.seur, vol. i, pp. 230-257.

For an account of "new tenor bills" in America and their failure in 1737, see Summer, pp. 27-31; for their failure in 1781, see Morse, "Life of Alexander Hamilton," vol. i, pp. 86, 87. For similar failure in Austria, see Summer, p. 314.]

[Footnote 73: See Marchant, "Lettre aux gens de bonne foi."]

[Footnote 74: See Summer, p. 44; also De Nervo, "Finances francaises,"

p. 282.]

[Footnote 75: See De Nervo, "Finances francaises," p. 282; also Leva.s.seur, vol. i, p. 236 et seq.]

[Footnote 76: See Table from "Gazette de France" and extracts from other sources in Leva.s.seur, vol. i, pp. 223-4.]

[Footnote 77: Among the many striking accounts of the debasing effects of "inflation" upon France under the Directory perhaps the best is that of Lacretelle, vol. xiii, pp. 32-36. For similar effect, produced by the same cause in our own country in 1819, see statement from Niles'

"Register," in Sumner, p. 80. For the jumble of families reduced to beggary with families lifted into sudden wealth and for the ma.s.s of folly and misery thus mingled, see Leva.s.sour, vol. i, p. 237.]

[Footnote 78: For Madame Tallien and luxury of the stock-gambler cla.s.ses, see Challamel, "Les francais sous la Revolution," pp. 30, 33; also De Goncourt, "Les francais sous le Directoire." Regarding the outburst of vice in Paris and the demoralization of the police, see Leva.s.seur, as above.]

[Footnote 79: See Leva.s.seur, Vol. i, p. 237, et seq.]

[Footnote 80: For specimens of counterfeit _a.s.signats_, see the White Collection in the Cornell University Library, but for the great series of various issues of them in fac-simile, also for detective warnings and attempted descriptions of many varieties of them, and for the history of their Issue, see especially Dewarmin, vol. i, pp. 152-161. For photographic copies of Royalist _a.s.signats_, etc., see also Dewarmin, ibid., pp. 192-197, etc. For a photograph of probably the last of the Royalist notes ever issued, bearing the words "Pro Deo, pro Rege, pro Patria" and "Armee Catholique et Royale" with the date 1799, and for the sum of 100 _livres_, see Dewarmin, vol. i, p. 204.]

[Footnote 81: For similar expectation of a "shock," which did not occur, at the resumption of specie payments in Ma.s.sachusetts, see Sumner, "History of American Currency," p. 34.]

[Footnote 82: See Thiers.]

[Footnote 83: See Leva.s.seur, vol. i, p. 246.]

[Footnote 84: For examples of similar effects in Russia, Austria and Denmark, see Storch, "Economie Politique," vol. iv; for similar effects in the United States, see Gouge, "Paper Money and Banking in the United States," also Summer, "History of American Currency." For working out of the same principles in England, depicted in a masterly way, see Macaulay, "History of England," chap. xxi; and for curious exhibition of the same causes producing same results in ancient Greece, see a curious quotation by Macaulay in same chapter.]

[Footnote 85: For parallel cases in the early history of our own country, see Sumner, p. 21, and elsewhere.]

[Footnote 86: For a review of some of these attempts, with eloquent statement of their evil results, see "Memoires de Durand de Maillane,"

pp. 166-169.]

[Footnote 87: For similar effect of inflated currency in enervating and undermining trade, husbandry, manufactures and morals in our own country, see Daniel Webster, cited in Sumner, pp. 45-50. For similar effects in other countries, see Senior, Storch, Macaulay and others already cited.]

[Footnote 88: For facts regarding French finance under Napoleon I am indebted to Hon. David A. Wells. For more recent triumphs of financial commonsense in France, see Bonnet's articles, translated by the late George Walker, Esq. For general subject, see Leva.s.seur.]