The Assignats

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Within the past fifteen years French scholars have unearthed an incredible quantity of documentary material, hitherto unobtainable and to a large extent unknown, regarding the whole period of the French Revolution. These documents, together with recent advances in monetary theory, have led Seymour Harris to undertake a fresh study of the Assignats. In monetary theory in its present state, one finds an instrument for the analysis of France’s experience with the Assignats which is of greater precision than any that has been available until recent years. Harris’s book is therefore a most valuable discussion of a fascinating chapter in the history of paper money, including the problem of coping with depreciated exchanges, of adjusting creditor-debtor relations, and of returning to a metal standard.