[Footnote 1: A paper read before a meeting of Senators and Members of
the House of Representatives of both political parties, at Washington,
April 12th, and before the Union League Club, at New York, April 13th,
1876, and now (1914) revised and extended.]
[Footnote 2: For proof that the financial situation of France at that
time was by no means hopeless, see Storch, "Economie Politique," vol.
iv, p. 159.]
[Footnote 3: See Moniteur, sitting of April 10, 1790.]
[Footnote 4: Ibid., sitting of April 15, 1790.]
[Footnote 5: For details of this struggle, see Buchez and Roux,
"Histoire Parlementaire de la Révolution Française," vol. iii, pp.
364, 365, 404. For the wild utterances of Marat throughout this whole
history, see the full set of his "L'ami du peuple" in the President
White Collection of the Cornell University. For Bergasse's pamphlet and
a mass of similar publications, see the same collection. For the effect
produced by them, see Challamel, "Les Français sous la Révolution";
also De Goncourt, "La Société Française pendant la Révolution," &c.]
For the Report referred to, see Levasseur, "Histoire des classes
ouvriès et de l'industrie en France de 1789 à 1870," Paris, 1903, vol.
i., chap. 6. Levasseur (vol. 1, p. 120), a very strong conservative in
such estimates, sets the total value of church property at two thousand
millions; other authorities put it as high as twice that sum. See
especially Taine, liv. ii, ch. I., who gives the valuation as "about
four milliards." Sybel, "Gesch. der Revolutionszeit," gives it as two
milliards and Briand, "La séparation" &c., agrees with him. See also De
Nerve, "Finances Françaises," vol. ii, pp. 236-240; also Alison,
"History of Europe," vol. i.]
[Footnote 6: For striking pictures of this feeling among the younger
generation of Frenchmen, see Challamel, "Sur la Révolution," p. 305.
For general history of John Law's paper money, see Henri Martin,
"Histoire de France"; also Blanqui, "Histoire de l'économie politique,"
vol. ii, pp. 65-87; also Senior on "Paper Money," sec. iii, Pt. I, also
Thiers, "Histoire de Law"; also Levasseur, op. cit. Liv. i., chap. VI.
Several specimens of John Law's paper currency are to be found in the
White Collection in the Library of Cornell University,--some, numbered
with enormous figures.]
[Footnote 7: See Buchez and Roux, "Histoire Parlementaire," vol. v, p.
321, et seq. For an argument to prove that the _assignats_ were, after
all, not so well secured as John Law's money, see Storch, "Economie
Politique," vol. iv, p. 160.]
[Footnote 8: For specimens of this first issue and of nearly every other
issue during the French Revolution, see the extensive collection of
originals in the Cornell University Library. For a virtually complete
collection of photographic copies, see Dewamin, "Cent ans de
numismatique française," vol. i, passim.]
[Footnote 9: See "Addresse de l'Assemblée nationals sur lea emissions
_d'assignats_ monnaies," p. 5.]
[Footnote 10: Ibid., p. 10.]
[Footnote 11: For Sarot, see "Lettre de M. Sarot," Paris, April 19,
1790. As to the sermon referred to see Levasseur as above, vol. i, p.
136.]
[Footnote 12: Von Sybel, "History of the French Revolution," vol. i, p.
252; also Levasseur, as above, pp. 137 and following.]
[Footnote 13: For Mirabeau's real opinion on irredeemable paper, see his
letter to Cerutti, in a leading article of the "Moniteur"; also
"Mèmoires do Mirabeau," vol. vii, pp. 23, 24 and elsewhere. For his
pungent remarks above quoted, see Levasseur, ibid., vol. i, p. 118.]
[Footnote 14: See "Moniteur," August 27, 1790.]
[Footnote 15: "Moniteur," August 28, 1790; also Levasseur, as above, pp.
139 _et seq_.]
[Footnote 16: "Par une seule opération, grande, simple, magnifique."
See "Moniteur." The whole sounds curiously like the proposals of the
"Greenbackers," regarding the American debt, some years since.]
[Footnote 17: "Moniteur," August 29, 1790.]
[Footnote 18: See Lacretelle, "18me Siécle," 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 Levasseur, vol. i, p. 142.]
[Footnote 22: See speech in "Moniteur"; also in Appendix to Thiers'
"History of the French Revolution."]
[Footnote 23: See Levassear, "Classes ouvrières," etc., vol. i, p.
149.]
[Footnote 24: See Levasseur, pp. 151 et seq. Various examples of these
"confidence bills" are to be seen in the Library of Cornell University.]
[Footnote 25: See Levasseur, vol. i, pp. 155-156.]
[Footnote 26: See Von Sybel, "History of the Revolution," vol. i, p.
265; also Levasseur, 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, "Société française," for other
explanations; "Les Révolutions de Paris," vol. ii, p. 216; Challamel,
"Les Français sous la Révolution"; Senior, "On Some Effects of Paper
Money," p. 82; Buchez and Roux, "Histoire Parlementaire," etc., vol. x,
p. 216; Aulard, "Paris pendant la Révolution thermidorienne," _passim_,
and especially "Rapport du bureau de surveillance," vol. ii, pp. 562, et
seq. (Dec. 4-24, 1795.)]
[Footnote 29: For statements and illustration 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, "Société Française," 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 Révolution," tome xii,
p. 113.]
[Footnote 34: See "Extrait du registre des délibérations de la section
de la bibliothèque," May 3, 1791, pp. 4, 5.]
[Footnote 35: Von Sybel, vol. i, p. 273.]
[Footnote 36: For general account, see Thiers' "Révolution," 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, "Musée," 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 _assignats_, see Caron, "Tableaux de
Dépréciation 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 "Révolutions 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 Dépréciation," 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 français sous la
Révolution," pp. 307, 308. See also Mercier, "Le Nouveau Paris,"
edition of 1800, chapter ccv., entitled "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 Levasseur, p. 180.]
[Footnote 43: See Levasseur, vol. i, p. 176.]
[Footnote 44: For Chaumette's brilliant display of fictitious 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 Levasseur, 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
française," vol. i, pp. 143-165.]
[Footnote 48: For statements showing the distress and disorder that
forced the Convention to establish the "_Maximum_" see Levasseur, vol.
i, pp. 188-193.]
[Footnote 49: See Levasseur, 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 Levasseur, vol. i, p. 194.]
[Footnote 52: See Levasseur, 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 Levasseur, as above. For curious examples of severe
penalties for very slight infringements on the law on the subject, see
Louis Blanc, "Histoire de la Révolution française," 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 Levasseur.]
[Footnote 55: Louis Blanc calls attention to this very fact in showing
the superiority of the French _assignats_ to the old American
Continental currency, See his "Histoire de la Révolution française,"
tome xii, p. 98.]
[Footnote 56: See Sumner, as above, p. 220.]
[Footnote 57: See Levasseur, 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 dépréciation de papier monnaie dans le department de la Seine."]
[Footnote 59: For the example of Metz and other authorities, see
Levasseur, as above, vol. i, p. 180.]
[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 _assignats_ for valuable property went on at periods of the rapid
depreciation of paper, see Challamel, "Les français sous la
Révolution," 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 "Mèmoires 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 Levasseur, 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'économie
politique," vol. ii, p. 229.]
[Footnote 69: See Von Sybel, vol. iv, pp. 337, 338. See also for
confirmation Challamel, "Histoire Musée," 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 Levasseur, "Histoire des classes
ouvrières," etc. vol. i, pp. 219, 230 and elsewhere; also De Nervo,
"Finance française," p. 280; also Stourm, as already cited. The exact
amount of _assignats_ 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 _assignats_ and _mandats_ at the same
time, see Dewarmin, vol. i, p. 136; also Levasseur, 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 françaises,"
p. 282.]
[Footnote 75: See De Nervo, "Finances françaises," p. 282; also
Levasseur, vol. i, p. 236 et seq.]
[Footnote 76: See Table from "Gazette de France" and extracts from other
sources in Levasseur, 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 mass of
folly and misery thus mingled, see Levassour, vol. i, p. 237.]
[Footnote 78: For Madame Tallien and luxury of the stock-gambler
classes, see Challamel, "Les français sous la Révolution," pp. 30, 33;
also De Goncourt, "Les français sous le Directoire." Regarding the
outburst of vice in Paris and the demoralization of the police, see
Levasseur, as above.]
[Footnote 79: See Levasseur, Vol. i, p. 237, et seq.]
[Footnote 80: For specimens of counterfeit _assignats_, 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 _assignats_, 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 "Armée 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 Massachusetts, see Sumner,
"History of American Currency," p. 34.]
[Footnote 82: See Thiers.]
[Footnote 83: See Levasseur, 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 "Mémoires 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 Levasseur.]