The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-02-10
VOL. IX.---NO. 6.

the general distress. In answer to this
inquiry, various schemes were suggested.
One was, to demonettse the assignats, or o
portion of them; that is, to take from them
the faculty of free circulation, and make
them literally what they were theoretically,
mere obligations upon land. But to this
proposal it was we'll replied, that to at
tempt to carry out such regulation in the
case, for example, Of laboring-man, was
to insure his starvation. He wants bread,
and you give him piece of earth. His
family are in rags, but in place of furnish
ing him, in return for his work, with what
will produce clothes, you make him in
mockery landed proprietor. AS long as
there was no other circulating medium
than the assiguat, an expedient like this
was out of the question and the simple
rumor that was in contemplation caused q
heavy fall in the price of paper.
A far more feasible scheme than this
was to make virtue of necessity, and sell
the domains, not for what they were
worth, but for what they would bring
They had been valued in 1870, and it was
certainly putting a great temptation in the
way Of the moneyed public to offer them,
in 1895, for three times their then esti-
mated value in assignats; and those who
had anything to spare were not slow to
take advantage of the opportunity. An
estate rated at ten thousand in gold, and
worth, therefore, sixty thousand in paper,
was offered for thirty thousand in assig-
mats, or for half its real value. Such O
bargain was not likely to present itself
again. Everybody who could scrape to.
gether bundle of notes became ambitious
of attaining to the dignity of a landhold-
err; and if the administration bad gone
only through with the scheme, the coun-
try would certainly have experienced
sensible relief. But after launching tho
scheme, and receiving many offers, the au-
thorities became suddenly alive to its sup
posed extravaganza, and quashed all the
proceedings which had been taken in con.
nection with it.
This straightforward plan of meeting
the difficulty being abandoned, all sorts Of
fancltul proposals were suggested and dis
cussed. Some argued for lotteries, others
for tontine, others still for great land
bank; while many urged the adoption of
certain article, of real value (such as
gold or corn, as q standard, and letting
the assignat be treated as any other COM
mon article of merchandise. Nothing eff.
fcctual, however, was really done, and the
evil went on increasing. BY the winter
l795-l796, the issue of assignats had ex-
tended to the enormous sum of forty-fye
thousand millions; but twenty-thousand
millions furnished, in actual value, scarce
ly one hundred millions, for the ass,gnats
acere not ,oorth more than the tpo-hund,edM
part Of their nominal yalue. The public
now therefore refused to take them. They
could pay for, and purchase nothing; and
the radical step required to be taken of
sweeping them entirely out of the way
This was done by creating new species
of paper-money, to which was given diff
ferent name. 1t does not appear very
clearly how this was to mend matters sat
isfactorily !; but here is the account of the
revolution as it appears on the page of
history: ..-
ga paper was devised, which, by tho
name OF naandats, was to represent fixed
value in land. Every domain was to be
delivered, without sale by auction, and
upon mere proceS-Oerbai, for o price in
mandats equal to that of 1870. Mandats
to the amount Of two thousand four hun
dred millions were to be created and do
mains to the like amount, according to
the estimate of 1870, were to be immedi-
ately appropriated to them. Thus these
mandats could not undergo any other va
ration than that Of the domains them
selves, since they represented fixed guam
tity of them. 1t would not thence abso-
utel y result that they should be on par
with money, for the domains were not
worth so much as in 1890, but at any
rate they must have the same value as
the domains. 1t was resolved to employ
part of these mandats to withdraw the as
signats. THE plate Of the assignats pas
broken upon the sob Of Phuuiose forty
five thousand five hundred millions had
been issued. by the different returns,
either by means of loans or of arrears, the
circulating quantity had been reduced to
thirty-six thousand millions, and was soon
to be further reduced to twenty-four thou
sand millions. These twenty-four thou
sand millions, reduced to one-thirtieth,
represented eight hundred millions; it
was decreed that they should be exchang-
ed for eight hundred millions in mandats,
which was liquidation of the assignat at
one-twentieth of its nominal value"
Such is short history of the first French
greenback. 1t was based on what appear
ed to be excellent security, but within a
very few years it had deteriorated in value
SO fearfully that in the end it was able to
pay only eightpence in the pound and
yet, with all that, it served an Important
purpose. The monarchy was overturned,
the Revolution was accomplished, all Eu-
rope was defed, on such means as it fur
nished. And one can fancy loyal Amer
lean say ing, while he sadly studies this