Overall: 50cm (20in) x 62cm (24in)
A printed sheet of French currency. Sheet: 36.2cm (14.2in) x 48.2cm (19in). Framed and glazed.
Introduced in 1789 as a bond bearing 5 percent interest in response to an empty treasury and a mountain of debt, the assignat was backed by the seizure of church lands. In September 1790 the National Assembly took the project further and made the assignat into a paper currency, and set a precedent for future governments in a fix, by tripling the amount of paper in circulation. The initial effect was beneficial, stimulating economic growth and eliminating a money shortage. But a deep public distrust of paper money and the fear that the currency would be worthless if the regime collapsed soon caused the assignat to depreciate.
By 1793 the assignat had lost more than half its value. By 1795 inflation was rampant and the assigned was virtually worthless with people exchanging huge quantities for a single loaf of bread. With collapse in confidence in the assisgnat, the situation was exacerbated by counterfeiting. Britain in particular flooded France fake notes further undermining public confidence and creating devastating social consequences. Economic failure which had heralded the storming of the Bastille in 1789 returned with farmers withholding produce and the creation of a flourishing black market. Hoarders were denounced as enemies of the Revolution and despatched to the guillotine. By 1796 Assignats were finally abandoned in favour of a new form of paper money, the mandats, which correspondingly failed, paving the way the organisational genius and unbounded ambition of Napoleon Bonaparte.