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{{Short description|Monetary instrument during the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
An '''assignat''' ({{IPA|fr|asiɲa|}}) was a monetary instrument, an order to pay, used during the time of the [[French Revolution]], and the [[French Revolutionary Wars]].

== France ==
[[File:FRA-A73-République Française-400 livres (1792) 2.jpg|thumb|300px|''Assignat'' from the 1792 issue: 400 [[French livres|livres]]]]

Assignats were paper money ([[fiat currency]]) authorized by the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]] in France from 1789 to 1796, during the [[French Revolution]], to address imminent bankruptcy. They were originally backed by the value of properties now held by the nation; those of the crown taken over on 7 October, and those of the Catholic Church, which were confiscated, on the motion of [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]], by the Assembly on 2 November 1789. Credit was wrecked, according to Talleyrand; for Mirabeau "the deficit was the treasure of the nation". In September the treasury was empty.<ref>[[François Crouzet]] (1993) La grande inflation : La monnaie en France de Louis XVI à Napoléon, pp. 97–98</ref> [[Talleyrand|Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord]] proposed "national goods" should be given back to the nation.<ref>Crouzet, F. (1993) La grande inflation, p. 101</ref> [[Jacques Necker|Necker]] proposed to borrow from the [[Caisse d'Escompte]], but his intention to change the private bank into a [[central bank|national bank]] similar to the [[Bank of England]] failed.<ref>Crouzet, F. (1993) La grande inflation, pp. 104–105</ref> A general default seemed certain.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dQWXXIcNI2oC&q=assignats+ The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation by Florin Aftalion, p. 59]</ref><ref name="books.google.nl">[https://books.google.com/books?id=fY_uBQAAQBAJ&q=Mirabeau+national+money&pg=PT309 Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution by Rebecca L. Spang]</ref> On 21 December 1789 a first decree was voted through, ordering the issue (in April 1790) of 400,000 livres' worth of assignats, certificates of indebtedness, with an interest rate of 5%, secured and repayable based on the auctioning of the "[[Biens nationaux]]".<ref>[https://www.numiscorner.com/blogs/news/the-french-revolution-the-assignats-and-the-counterfeiters The French Revolution, the Assignats, and the Counterfeiters]</ref> The assignats were immediately a source of political controversy. Constitutional monarchists such as [[Jean-Sifrein Maury]], [[Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès]], [[Nicolas Bergasse]] and [[Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil]] opposed it. 
While their proponents, like other eighteenth-century advocates of "land banks," argued that land was a more stable source of value than was gold or silver, the assignats' opponents saw them as based on an illegitimate seizure of property.

The assignats were first to be paid to the [[creditor]]s of the state. With these the creditors could purchase national land, the assignats having, for this purpose, the preference over other forms of money. If the creditor did not care to purchase land, it was supposed that he could obtain the [[face value]] for them from those who desired land. Those assignats which were returned to the state as purchase-money were to be cancelled, and the whole issue, it was argued, would consequently disappear as the national lands were distributed.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Assignats|volume=2|pages=781–782|first=Thomas Allan|last=Ingram}}</ref>

[[Image:The value of assignats(1789-1796).png|thumb|left|The value of Assignats (1789–1796)]]

Originally meant as [[Bond (finance)|bonds]], the assignats were re-defined as [[legal tender]] (assignats-monnaie) in April 1790 to address the liquidity crisis provoked by the political, social, and cultural instability of the Revolution.

===1790–1792===

[[Étienne Clavière]] lobbied for large issues of assignats representing national wealth and operating as legal tender.<ref name="Whatmore, Richard 1996">Whatmore, Richard (1996) "Commerce, Constitutions, and the Manners of a Nation: Etienne Clavière's Revolutionary Political Economy, 1788–1793". History of European Ideas 22.5–6 (1996): 351–368. Web.</ref> On 17 April 1790, the notes were declared legal tender but their interest was reduced to 3%.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dQWXXIcNI2oC&q=assignats+ The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation by Florin Aftalion, p. xii]</ref> For daily life smaller denominations of 200 and 300 livres were needed. The assignats would compensate for the scarcity of coin and would revive industry and trade.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dQWXXIcNI2oC&q=assignats+ The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation by Florin Aftalion, pp. 80, 95]</ref> Once the assignats were paid, they had to be burnt. A [[surety]] was prepared for future issues of paper money.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dQWXXIcNI2oC&q=assignats+ The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation by Florin Aftalion, p. 76]</ref> As soon as the assignats started to circulate, their value decreased by 5 percent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Levasseur|first=E.|title=The Assignats: A Study in the Finances of the French Revolution|journal=Journal of Political Economy|year=1894 |volume=2|issue=2 |pages=182|doi=10.1086/250201|doi-access=free}}</ref> Du Pont de Nemours feared the emission of assignats would double the price of bread.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/moneyandfinance00dillgoog <!-- quote=assignat . --> The Money and the Finances of the French Revolution of 1789: Assignats and Mandats: A True History: Including an Examination of Dr. Andrew D. White's Paper Money Inflation in France by Stephen Devalson Dillaye, p. 18]</ref>

{{blockquote|[[Jacques Necker]] himself argued at the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Assembly]] on 27 August that the assignats were a paper money which would bankrupt France.<ref>'Contre l'émission de dix-neuf cents millions d'assignats', Œuvres complètes de Jacques Necker
(Paris, 1821), vii, 430–447.</ref> Talleyrand had also attacked them on the grounds that they risked the same fate as [[John Law (economist)|John Law]]'s schemes. [[Armand-Gaston Camus|Camus]] stressed what he believed was the lesson of American experience of paper, which had undermined metal money and sent prices spiralling.<ref>De l'opinion de M. Camus, (Paris, 1789)</ref> [[Marquis de Condorcet|Nicolas de Condorcet]] and [[Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours]] argued that the assignats would drive out silver and other forms of coin, raise prices relative to paper, and thereby dangerously restrict commerce. All of these writers preferred the issue of [[treasury bills]] at interest through the Caisse d'Escompte, a revised tax-system, and increased loans.<ref name="Whatmore, Richard 1996">Whatmore, Richard (1996) "Commerce, Constitutions, and the Manners of a Nation: Etienne Clavière's Revolutionary Political Economy, 1788–1793". History of European Ideas 22.5–6 (1996): 351–368. Web.</ref>}}

On 27 August 1790 the Assembly decided another issue of 1,9 billion assignats which would become [[legal tender]] before the end of the year for all actions, c.q. banknotes, which could be acquired by anyone and used for ordinary business transactions. Necker, suspected of reactionary tendencies, resolutely against the transformation of the assignat into paper currency, handed in his resignation on 3 September.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/considerationso02holgoog |title=Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution |publisher=Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy |year=1818 |last=Stael |first=Germaine de |pages=[https://archive.org/details/considerationso02holgoog/page/n270 256]–258 |language=English}}</ref> The massive and dangerous issue of 1,9 billion he succeeded to get down to 800 million, but the attacks may have influenced his resignation.<ref>Crouzet, F. (1993) La grande inflation, p. 115</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-41YAAAAcAAJ&q=assignats+&pg=PA17 Histoire de la révolution française: depuis l'Assemblée des notables ... by Jacques Necker, p. 35]</ref> Necker was not backed by [[Comte de Mirabeau]], his strongest opponent who called for "national money".<ref>[https://aadl.org/node/307527 A.D. White (1878) The Assignat|Ann Arbor Library]</ref>

{{blockquote|By September 1790, all authorized assignats had been paid out by the government. Supporters of the paper money argued that since the assignats were secured by land, more notes could be safely issued as long as they were retired and burned at the same rate that the lands securing them were sold. On 29 September 1790, the National Assembly authorized a further issue of 800 million livres and abolished interest on the assignats altogether.<ref>[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.FRENCHCURRENCY Guide to the French Currency Collection 1791–1796. University of Chicago Library (2012)]</ref>)}}

Necker foretold that the paper money, with which the dividends were about to be paid, would soon be of no value. Since no one had truly the right to make assignats, everyone would soon begin to do so.<ref name="books.google.nl"/> [[François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac|Montesquiou-Fézensac]], charged with the issue of assignats, feared [[stockjobbing]] and greed.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/opinion00unse_w41/page/8 <!-- quote=Montesquiou assignats. --> Opinion de M. de Montesquiou sur les assignats-monnoie..., p. 3]</ref>

{{blockquote|By September 1790, the assignat had become a true circulating paper currency, and 800 million livres worth of non-interest bearing notes were added to the initial issue, in denominations of 50, 60 70, 80, 90, 100, 500, and 2000 livres with legal-tender status. The lower denominations were produced in large numbers in order to ensure wide circulation. This change stimulated the economy but also increased inflationary pressures.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160403023155/https://www.money.org/blog/french-revolution-vault Tales from the Vault: Money of the French Revolution – the Assignat by Douglas Mudd, ANA Money Museum curator / museum director]</ref>}}

[[Image:Assignat de 15 sols.jpg|thumb|200px| ''Assignat'' of 4 Jan 1792, still bearing Royal markings: 15 [[French sol|sols]]]]

When the cost of reimbursing Old Regime venal office holders for their properties (judgeships, military ranks etc.) added yet more to the Revolution's inherited debts, the National Assembly voted by a narrow margin to issue additional assignats in September 1790,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution|last=Spang|first=Rebecca|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2015|location=Cambridge, MA and London|pages=57–96}}</ref> initially of an additional 800 million francs.{{sfn|Ingram|1911}} By September 1791, the value of the assignats had depreciated by 18–20 percent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Levasseur|first=E.|title=The Assignats: A Study in the Finances of the French Revolution.|journal=Journal of Political Economy|year=1894 |volume=2|issue=2 |pages=185|doi=10.1086/250201|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The properties backing the assignats were renamed ''[[biens nationaux]]'' ("national goods") and auctioned by district-level authorities. On 10 March 1790, on the proposition [[Pétion]], the administration of the church property was transferred to the municipalities.<ref>Crouzet, F. (1993) La grande inflation, p. 110</ref> Through the sale of these properties, assignats were used to successfully retire a significant portion of the [[Government debt|national debt]]. However, since these land sales were their original intent, the assignats were issued only in large denominations (50, 100, 200, and 1000 livres) that worked poorly as a daily medium of exchange. Moreover, the National Assembly never mandated that assignats and Old Regime coins (which remained in circulation) had to be exchanged on par. Already in fall 1790, the National Assembly itself was paying a 7.5% commission to exchange large denomination assignats for smaller coins. By the end of 1791, the discount rate was often 20% or more.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution|last=Spang|first=Rebecca|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2015|location=Cambridge, MA and London|pages=159}}</ref> These limits on the bills' practical use, and further issues eventually totalling 3.75 billion francs,{{sfn|Ingram|1911}} coupled with the organized opposition of counter-revolutionaries, led to their losing value. On 1 February 1792 the assignats depreciated almost with 50%.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=y2vy9y9LDvwC&q=sans-culottes&pg=PA36 Press in the French Revolution by John Thomas Gilchrist, p. 261]</ref> Patriotic revolutionaries blamed the assignats' depreciation on foreign conspiracies. Clavière held the coalition of states responsible for the collapse of the assignat. [[Stephen D. Dillaye]], an American politician who referred to monetary policy history, wrote that the British, Belgian, and Swiss counterfeited the currency industrially: "Seventeen manufacturing establishments were in full operation in London, with a force of four hundred men devoted to the production of false and forged Assignats."<ref>Stephen D. Dillaye, ''Assignats and Mandats: A True History, Including an Examination of Dr. Andrew Dickson White's 'Paper Money in France{{'}}'', (Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird & Co, 1877) p. 33</ref> On 17 October 1792, no less than 2,400 million assignations were in circulation.

===1793–1799===
{{See also|William Playfair#Counterfeiting operation}}

After the outbreak of [[French Revolutionary Wars|war]], the fall of the [[10 August (French Revolution)|monarchy]], and the declaration of a [[French First Republic|Republic]], the [[National Convention]] mandated that bills and coins exchange on par, but this law could never be enforced. Instead, the assignats continued depreciating. On 10 April 1793 Robespierre accused [[Dumouriez]] in a speech: "Dumouriez and his supporters have brought a fatal blow to the public fortune, preventing circulation of assignats in Belgium".<ref>[[Wikisource]]: Œuvres complètes de Maximilien Robespierre. Speech Robespierre against Brissot and the girondins Delivered to the Convention on 10 April 1793</ref>

[[Counterfeiting]] of assignats was widespread, both in France and abroad.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levasseur |first=E. |date=1894 |title=The Assignats: A Study in the Finances of the French Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1819467 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=179–202 |issn=0022-3808}}</ref><ref>Seymour Edwin Harris''The Assignats'' (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1930)</ref><ref>Rebecca L. Spang, ''Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution''
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015)</ref> Researchers have documented how French royalists worked with British authorities, including senior ministers and military commanders, to manufacture paper for counterfeit assignats at mills across England, after which the paper was distributed across various locations for printing.<ref>Peter Bower, "Sir John Swinburne's 1793 Memorandum on the English Forgery of French Assignats at Haughton Castle Paper Mill, Northumberland, in  the 1790s" ''The Quarterly,'' No. 106 (April 2018)</ref> By August 1793 the amount of assignats in circulation had doubled to 5 billion. Rising prices and food shortages exacerbated public unrest in September. Bills such as the ''[[Maximum Price Act]]'' of 1793 aimed to address this situation.

On 8 November 1793 the director of the manufacture of assignats [[:fr:Simon-François Lamarche]] was executed. On 2 December Clavière was arrested; he committed suicide within a week. On 24 February 1794 the extension of the "maximum" to all commodities only increased the confusion. Trade was paralysed and all manufacturing establishments were closed down.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===June 1794===

By June 1794 the total number of assignats aggregated nearly 8 billion, of which only 2,464 million had returned to the treasury and been destroyed, after an emission of 1,205 million assignats on 19 June; the assignat was losing more and more value. In August, the [[Thermidorian Convention]] lifted the [[Maximum Price Act]] in the name of "economic freedom" and the assignats lost almost all value over the next year.  Toward the end of 1794 seven billion in assignats were in circulation. The assignat fell from 31% of its face value in August 1794 to 24% in November, 17% in February, and 8% in April 1795.<ref>The Thermidorian regime and the Directory 1794–1799, CUP (1972), p. 10.</ref> By the end of May, 1795, the circulation was increased to ten billion, at the end of July, to fourteen billion.<ref>FIAT MONEY INFLATION IN FRANCE, p. 49</ref> By 1796 the issues had reached 45.5 billion francs, excluding counterfeits, and the [[French Directory|Directoire]] issued [[Mandats territoriaux|Mandats]], a currency in the form of land warrants to replace the assignats, although these too quickly failed and were received back by the state at a steep discount.{{sfn|Ingram|1911}} [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] opposed all forms of [[fiat currency]]. By the 1830s–1840s, the assignats and other papers issued during the Revolution had become [[Collectable|collectors' items]].

==Italy==
{{CSS image crop|Image = ITA-S538-Italian States assignat-8 Paoli (1798).jpg|bSize = 210|cWidth = 220|cHeight = 165|oTop = 7|oLeft = 0|Description = An eight-paoli [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] assignat (1798).}}

Between 1798 and 1799, the [[French Revolutionary Wars|revolutionary French forces]] established the [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]], which also issued ''assignats'' (Italian: ''assegnati''). They were issued by the law of 23 [[Fructidor]] VI (14 Sept 1798). The currency used was ''paolo'' or ''giulio'', the older [[Papal States scudo|currency of the Papal States]]. Roman Republic also issued coins denominated in ''baiocco'' and ''scudo''.
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== Russia ==
{{Css Image Crop|Image = RUS-A11b-Russian State Assignat-50 Rubles (1807).jpg |bSize = 223|cWidth = 220|cHeight = 147|oTop = 7|oLeft = 2|Location = right|Description = Russian [[assignation ruble]] (1807)}}
The term ''assignat'' is similar to the Russian word ''assignatsia'' which means "banknote". ''Assignatsionny rubl'' ([[assignation ruble]]) was used in Russia from 1769 until 1 January 1849. This had no connection to the French Revolution.
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==See also==
{{Portal|Money|Numismatics}}
*[[Warrant of payment]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[https://mises.org/library/fiat-money-inflation-france Fiat Money Inflation in France], How It Came, What It Brought, and How It Ended BY ANDREW DIGESON WHITE (1933). Mises Institute
*{{cite journal | last1 = Bordo | first1 = Michael D. | last2 = White | first2 = Eugene N. | year = 1991 | title = A Tale of Two Currencies: British and French Finance during the Napoleonic Wars | journal = Journal of Economic History | volume = 51 | issue = 2| pages = 303–16 | jstor=2122576 | doi=10.1017/s002205070003895x| s2cid = 152475204 }}
*Bosher, John F. ''French Finances, 1770–1795: From Business to Bureaucracy'' (1970)
*Harris, Seymour E. ''The Assignats'' (1930)
*Spang, Rebecca L., ''Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution'' (London and Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015).
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=blYbAAAAMAAJ&q=Robespierre&pg=PA22 A Cursory View of the Assignats and Remaining Resources of French Finance ... by Francis d' Ivernois]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=xBdDAQAAMAAJ&dq=cambon+assignats&pg=PA1043 Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England: From the Norman ..., Band 31]

==External links==
* [https://fee.org/articles/the-great-french-inflation/ The Great French Inflation]
*{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Economic history of France]]
[[Category:Banknotes of Europe]]
[[Category:1789 establishments in France]]