The Assignats

1790–1796 CE — Western Europe, Revolutionary France

Today: France (Paris)

The revolution inherited the bankruptcy that had helped cause it, seized the Church's lands, and issued paper notes — assignats — backed by that property, to be retired as the land sold. Then it kept printing. By 1796 the notes had lost more than 99% of their value, prices in Paris rose to hundreds of times their pre-revolutionary level, and the government made refusing the paper a capital offence, which did not help. Peasants would not sell food for it. The chaos discredited the republic's economics and prepared people for someone who could restore order.

Worth knowing: The government eventually burned the printing plates in a public ceremony to prove it would print no more — then issued a replacement paper currency, which collapsed within a year, and France returned to metal coin.

Pattern: Monetary debasement — A money's intrinsic or backed value is diluted to fund obligations; confidence in it erodes, often into inflation.

Entry 179 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.