The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-02-10

KNOWING tnat sucn capital was perpetually
melting away in their hands, made at
tempts in every direction to exchange
them for something of inherent or less
varying value, and fictitious briskness
was thus communicated to trade. These
men would buy anything-pictures, furni-
ture, bills of exchange on foreign coun-
tries, or shares in stocks, or banks, of
companies, which last mentioned species
OF property rose, in consequence of this
demand, to previously unimaginable rates
of quotations. They even scrambled for
the possession of kind of assgnat which
was supposed to be less subject to sink
than its neighbors this was the assignat
of the first issue, which, because it dated
from the days of royalty, and bore upon
its face the kings image and superscrip-
ton, was believed to be certain to retain
its value even in the case of counter
. revolution. But the necessity for seeking
such investments led naturally to some
thing other than the revival of what we
may call legitimate commerce there fol.
lowed in the traiu, speculation of the
widest description. The heart of Paris
became the Exchange; and such gambling
in gold aud silver, and other commodities,
occurred there, as we can find parallel
to nowhere, except, perhaps, in Wall
street, New York.
The part of Nero fddling over Rome in
flames is reacted in every age !; it was so
in France during the Revolutionary era.
There, men grew rich on the misfortunes
of their country, and drank deepest Of the
cup of pleasure when a defeat or some
other calamity had filled the heart of the
nation with grief; and so it is in Ameri.
ca at the present hour. If we are to be-
lieve the accounts which reach US through
the public press, the number of those who
in New York and Washington have be-
come suddenly rich, has never been great
er, and at no period has there been, in
those cities, so much gaiety and display
and extravaganza as has appeared of late
among the contractors and spectators
who have become millionaires through
the national distress.
1t must not, however, be supposed that
the price of the assignat tended invariably
downwards; on the contrary, it Auctuated
just as the price of the greenback does
now and, indeed, at one time it recover
ed itself so remarkably, that for very
short period it was nearly on par with
specie. The causes of this extraordinary
revival were these: in the first place,
forced loan was decreed, by which it was
expected so much money would be real
lied as to allow the administration to with
draw as many as thousand millions from
the paper circulation; and anything that
had tendency to lessen the mass, helped
so far to enhance its intrinsic value. But
what contributed more effectually than
this to the end referred to, was the in
creased stringency with which the laws
relating to boarding were enforced. 1t
was made penal to possess a private store
of metals. If any one were. discovered
with stock of the coniraband commodi-
ty in his house, the treasure-trove was
seized, and divided between the govern
ment and the informer. 1t thus became
positively dangerous to have gold or sill
yer and hence perfect rush was made
to get rid of them. They were carried to
the frontier, and paid away for foreign
goods; they were taken to the public Of
ices, and rendered as payment for taxes;
they were even, in some cases, gladly ex-
changed for the assignat itself. In these
ways, specie became for the moment actu-
ally abundant; and the result was, as we
have said, that paper and coin approxima-
ted to each other in value, and were for
little while almost on a par.
But this did not last. The extraordi.
nary demands made on the government
for the public service necessitated the con-
slant issue by it Of fresh paper. 1t had
twelve hundred thousand men to arm and
pay, material to create, and a navy to
build and the taaes did not produce
more than fifth of the moutaly expendi-
ture. In Ethese circumstances, their only
resource was the printing of the new as
signats and when, in the beginning of
1874, the sum-total of all the previous is
sues was doubled, the note lost its tempo
rary value, and fell back to its former de-
preciated condition. This, however,
might have been borne, if the decline had
stopped then; but it went on, and that
with accelerated speed. The .greenback
became more and more worthless Those
who received stated incomes, paid not in
coin but in its nominal value in paper,
felt themselves growing more and more
straitened in their circumstances. The
distress, in fact, came to be well-nigh uni
versal, aud never had the inventive mind
of France more perplexing problem sub
mitted to it than that how the obviously
approaching financial crash was to be aver
ted.
Our readers, who remember on what
solid basis the assignat issue rested, may
feel inclined to ask why that basis was
not turned to more account. How did it
happen that the fifteen thousand millions
at which the national real property was
valued, came in SO slowly? The simple
answer is, that purchasers could not be