Fiat Money Inflation in France Part 5

[Footnote 17: "Moniteur," August 29, 1790.]

[Footnote 18: See Lacretelle, "18me Siecle," vol. viii, pp. 84-87; also Thiers and Mignet.]

[Footnote 19: See Hatin, Histoire de la Presse en France, vols. v and vi.]

[Footnote 20: See "Moniteur," Sept. 5, 6 and 20, 1790.]

[Footnote 21: See Leva.s.seur, vol. i, p. 142.]

[Footnote 22: See speech in "Moniteur"; also in Appendix to Thiers'

"History of the French Revolution."]

[Footnote 23: See Leva.s.sear, "Cla.s.ses ouvrieres," etc., vol. i, p.

149.]

[Footnote 24: See Leva.s.seur, pp. 151 et seq. Various examples of these "confidence bills" are to be seen in the Library of Cornell University.]

[Footnote 25: See Leva.s.seur, vol. i, pp. 155-156.]

[Footnote 26: See Von Sybel, "History of the Revolution," vol. i, p.

265; also Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, pp. 152-160.]

[Footnote 27: For Turgot's argument against "fiat money" theory, see A.

D. White, "Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason," article on Turgot, pp. 169, et seq.]

[Footnote 28: See De Goncourt, "Societe francaise," for other explanations; "Les Revolutions de Paris," vol. ii, p. 216; Challamel, "Les Francais sous la Revolution"; Senior, "On Some Effects of Paper Money," p. 82; Buchez and Roux, "Histoire Parlementaire," etc., vol. x, p. 216; Aulard, "Paris pendant la Revolution thermidorienne," _pa.s.sim_, and especially "Rapport du bureau de surveillance," vol. ii, pp. 562, et seq. (Dec. 4-24, 1795.)]

[Footnote 29: For statements and ill.u.s.tration of the general action of this law, see Sumner, "History of American Currency," pp. 157, 158; also Jevons, on "Money," p. 80.]

[Footnote 30: See De Goncourt, "Societe Francaise," p. 214.]

[Footnote 31: See Von Sybel, History of the French Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 281, 283.]

[Footnote 32: For proofs that issues of irredeemable paper at first stimulated manufactures and commerce in Austria and afterward ruined them, see Storch's "Economie politique," vol. iv, p. 223, note; and for the same effect produced by the same causes in Russia, see ibid., end of vol. iv. For the same effects in America, see Sumner's "History of American Currency." For general statement of effect of inconvertible issues on foreign exchanges see McLeod on "Banking," p. 186.]

[Footnote 33: See Louis Blanc, "Histoire de la Revolution," tome xii, p. 113.]

[Footnote 34: See "Extrait du registre des deliberations de la section de la bibliotheque," May 3, 1791, pp. 4, 5.]

[Footnote 35: Von Sybel, vol. i, p. 273.]

[Footnote 36: For general account, see Thiers' "Revolution," chap. xiv; also Lacretelle, vol. viii, p. 109; also "Memoirs of Mallet du Pan." For a good account of the intrigues between the court and Mirabeau and of the prices paid him, see Reeve, "Democracy and Monarchy in France," vol.

i, pp. 213-220. For a very striking caricature published after the iron chest in the Tuileries was opened and the evidences of bribery of Mirabeau fully revealed, see Challamel, "Musee," etc. Vol. i, p. 341, is represented as a skeleton sitting on a pile of letters, holding the French crown in one hand and a purse of gold in the other.]

[Footnote 37: Thiers, chap. ix.]

[Footnote 38: For this and other evidences of steady decline in the purchasing power of the _a.s.signats_, see Caron, "Tableaux de Depreciation du papier-monnaie," Paris, 1909, p. 386.]

[Footnote 39: See especially "Discours de Fabre d'Eglantine," in "Moniteur" for August 11, 1793; also debate in "Moniteur" of September 15, 1793; also Prudhomme's "Revolutions de Paris." For arguments of much the same tenor, see vast numbers of pamphlets, newspaper articles and speeches during the "Greenback Craze,"--and the craze for unlimited coinage of silver,--in the United States.]

[Footnote 40: See Caron, "Tableaux de Depreciation," as above, p.

386.]

[Footnote 41: Von Sybel, vol. i, pp. 509, 510, 515; also Villeneuve Bargemont, "Histoire de l'Economie Politique," vol. ii, p. 213.]

[Footnote 42: As to the purchasing power of money at that time, see Arthur Young, "Travels in France during the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789."

For notices of the small currency with examples of satirical verses written regarding it, see Challamel, "Les francais sous la Revolution," pp. 307, 308. See also Mercier, "Le Nouveau Paris,"

edition of 1800, chapter ccv., ent.i.tled "Parchemin Monnaie." A series of these petty notes will be found in the White collection of the Cornell University Library. They are very dirty and much worn, but being printed on parchment, remain perfectly legible. For issue of quarter-"_sou_"

pieces see Leva.s.seur, p. 180.]

[Footnote 43: See Leva.s.seur, vol. i, p. 176.]

[Footnote 44: For Chaumette's brilliant display of fict.i.tious reasons for the decline see Thiers, Shoberl's translation, published by Bentley, vol. iii, p. 248.]

[Footnote 45: For these fluctuations, see Caron, as above, p. 387.]

[Footnote 46: One of the Forced Loan certificates will be found in the White Collection in the Library of Cornell University.]

[Footnote 47: For details of these transactions, see Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, chap. 6, pp. 181, et seq. Original specimens of these notes, bearing the portrait of Louis XVI will be found in the Cornell University Library (White Collection) and for the whole series perfectly photographed in the same collection, Dewarmin, "Cent ans de numismatique francaise," vol. i, pp. 143-165.]

[Footnote 48: For statements showing the distress and disorder that forced the Convention to establish the "_Maximum_" see Leva.s.seur, vol.

i, pp. 188-193.]

[Footnote 49: See Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, pp. 195-225.]

[Footnote 50: See specimens of these tickets in the White Collection in the Cornell Library.]

[Footnote 51: For these condemnations to the guillotine see the officially published trials and also the lists of the condemned, in the White Collection, also the lists given daily in the "Moniteur." For the spy system, see Leva.s.seur, vol. i, p. 194.]

[Footnote 52: See Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, p. 186. For an argument to show that the Convention was led into this Draconian legislation, not by necessity, but by its despotic tendencies, see Von Sybel's "History of the French Revolution," vol. iii, pp. 11, 12. For general statements of theories underlying the "_Maximum_," see Thiers; for a very interesting picture, by an eye-witness, of the absurdities and miseries it caused, see Mercier, "Nouveau Paris," edition of 1800, chapter XLIV.]

[Footnote 53: For a summary of the report of the Committee, with list of articles embraced under it, and for various interesting details, see Villeneuve Bargemont, "Histoire de l'Economie Politique," vol. ii, pp.

213-239; also Leva.s.seur, as above. For curious examples of severe penalties for very slight infringements on the law on the subject, see Louis Blanc, "Histoire de la Revolution francaise," tome x, p. 144.

For Louis XIVth's claim see "Memoirs of Louis XIV for the Instruction of the Dauphin."]

For a simple exposition of the way in which the exercise of this power became simply confiscation of all private property in France, see Mallet Du Pan's "Memoirs," London, 1852, vol. ii, p. 14.]

[Footnote 54: See Du Pont's arguments, as given by Leva.s.seur.]

[Footnote 55: Louis Blanc calls attention to this very fact in showing the superiority of the French _a.s.signats_ to the old American Continental currency, See his "Histoire de la Revolution francaise,"

tome xii, p. 98.]

[Footnote 56: See Sumner, as above, p. 220.]

[Footnote 57: See Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, p. 178.]

[Footnote 58: See Cambon's "Report," Aug. 15, 1793, pp. 49-60; also, "Decree of Aug. 24, 1793," sec. 31, chapters XCVI-CIII. Also, "Tableaux de la depreciation de papier monnaie dans le department de la Seine."]

[Footnote 59: For the example of Metz and other authorities, see Leva.s.seur, as above, vol. i, p. 180.]