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Fiat Money Inflation in France, How It Came, What It Brought, And How It Ended
The question will naturally be asked, On whom did this vast depreciation mainly fall at last? When this currency had sunk to about one three-hundredth part of its nominal value and, after that, to nothing, in whose hands was the bulk of it? The answer is simple. I shall give it in the exact words of that thoughtful historian from whom I have already quoted: "Before the end of the year 1795 the paper money was almost exclusively in the hands of the working classes, employees and men of small means, whose property was not large enough to invest in stores of goods or national lands.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
About the author
Andrew Dickson White
806 books8 followersAmerican educator and diplomat Andrew Dickson White founded Cornell University with Ezra Cornell and served as its first president from 1868 to 1885 and also served as ambassador of United States to Germany from 1897 to 1902.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
December 1, 2023
2011 - Short, classic work on what happened in the French Revolution regarding money. If you don't know already, you may be amazed at how bad everyday life and commerce got, along with the Terror.
The book left out a few things that I wanted it to explore:
- What did the government do to/with the old money (Franks?) when it issued Assignats?
- What was the actual process of issuing Assignats?
- How did they actually get them in circulation?
This book was fantastic for explaining the history, psychology and characters involved in the horrible French inflation during the Revolution. But how many modern folks even know that there WAS a major hyper-inflation during the French Revolution, or that it could have been a huge factor in making the terror worse?
Highly recommended.
The book left out a few things that I wanted it to explore:
- What did the government do to/with the old money (Franks?) when it issued Assignats?
- What was the actual process of issuing Assignats?
- How did they actually get them in circulation?
This book was fantastic for explaining the history, psychology and characters involved in the horrible French inflation during the Revolution. But how many modern folks even know that there WAS a major hyper-inflation during the French Revolution, or that it could have been a huge factor in making the terror worse?
Highly recommended.
March 16, 2023
درباره‌ی جنبه‌های سیاسی-اجتماعی انقلاب فرانسه و حوادث و خونریزی‌های قبل و بعد از آن کتاب‌های زیادی نوشته شده است. این کتاب به یکی از جنبه‌های اقتصادی انقلاب کبیر فرانسه می‌پردازد: چاپ پول و افزایش حجم نقدینگی و پیامدهای پس از آن.
دولت‌ها و مجلس‌های برآمده پس از سقوط سلطنت فرانسه برای رفع بدهی‌های دولت و کسری بودجه دست به چاپ پول می‌زنند و نتیجه تورمِ افسار گسیخته و سپس رکود تورمی است و شرایطی که در ایران برای ما بسیار آشناست. مثلا:
انداختن تقصیر ها بر گردن کشورهای خارجی مثل انگلیس، یا بر گردن دلال‌ها و اعدام آن‌ها برای حل مشکل تورم، جلوگیری از واردات و تجارت آزاد، تعطیل شدن کارخانه‌ها، بی‌اطمینانی نسبت به شرایط اقتصادی آینده، اکراه از کار و تلاش، آلودگی کارگزاران حکومت به فساد و رشوه، فروپاشی اخلاقی جامعه و تباه شدن باور واقعی به ملت و پاک‌نیتی، ظهور طبقه‌ی وسیع وام‌گیرندگان(به علت کاهش ارزش بدهی در اثر تورم) اقدام دولت برای اقتصاد دستوری و تثبیت قیمت‌ها و ...
تأثیر تورم فقط کاهش ارزش پول ملی نیست، به قول مترجم «تورم قاعدتاً باید حرام‌ترین حرام اقتصادی تلقی گردد، چون مالیاتی است غیر شفاف و غیر صریح از فقرا به نفع فاسدترین طبقه‌ی ثروتمندان»
پ.ن.۱: می‌دانستید ایران رکورددار تورم مزمن در جهان است؟ شاید کشورهایی مثل کوبا یا ونزوئلا نرخ‌های بالاتری از تورم ثبت کرده باشند ولی هیچ کشوری در جهان نیست که به مدت تقریباً ۵۰ سال تورم‌های بالای ۳۰درصد داشته باشد. به نظرم یکی از مطالبات اصلی مردم از هر دولت/حکومتی در ایران باید کاهش تورم باشد.
پ.ن.۲: ترجمه‌ی صحیح عنوان اصلی کتاب چنین چیزی است:
«تورم ناشی از پولِ بی‌پشتوانه در فرانسه: چگونه آمد؟ چه با خود آورد؟ و چگونه پایان یافت؟»
آقا/خانم مترجم، میدانم که تغییر عنوان کتاب را برای جذاب‌تر شدن و فروش بیشتر کتاب انجام می‌دهید، اما این کار نوعی خیانت در امانت و فریفتن خواننده نیست؟
دولت‌ها و مجلس‌های برآمده پس از سقوط سلطنت فرانسه برای رفع بدهی‌های دولت و کسری بودجه دست به چاپ پول می‌زنند و نتیجه تورمِ افسار گسیخته و سپس رکود تورمی است و شرایطی که در ایران برای ما بسیار آشناست. مثلا:
انداختن تقصیر ها بر گردن کشورهای خارجی مثل انگلیس، یا بر گردن دلال‌ها و اعدام آن‌ها برای حل مشکل تورم، جلوگیری از واردات و تجارت آزاد، تعطیل شدن کارخانه‌ها، بی‌اطمینانی نسبت به شرایط اقتصادی آینده، اکراه از کار و تلاش، آلودگی کارگزاران حکومت به فساد و رشوه، فروپاشی اخلاقی جامعه و تباه شدن باور واقعی به ملت و پاک‌نیتی، ظهور طبقه‌ی وسیع وام‌گیرندگان(به علت کاهش ارزش بدهی در اثر تورم) اقدام دولت برای اقتصاد دستوری و تثبیت قیمت‌ها و ...
تأثیر تورم فقط کاهش ارزش پول ملی نیست، به قول مترجم «تورم قاعدتاً باید حرام‌ترین حرام اقتصادی تلقی گردد، چون مالیاتی است غیر شفاف و غیر صریح از فقرا به نفع فاسدترین طبقه‌ی ثروتمندان»
پ.ن.۱: می‌دانستید ایران رکورددار تورم مزمن در جهان است؟ شاید کشورهایی مثل کوبا یا ونزوئلا نرخ‌های بالاتری از تورم ثبت کرده باشند ولی هیچ کشوری در جهان نیست که به مدت تقریباً ۵۰ سال تورم‌های بالای ۳۰درصد داشته باشد. به نظرم یکی از مطالبات اصلی مردم از هر دولت/حکومتی در ایران باید کاهش تورم باشد.
پ.ن.۲: ترجمه‌ی صحیح عنوان اصلی کتاب چنین چیزی است:
«تورم ناشی از پولِ بی‌پشتوانه در فرانسه: چگونه آمد؟ چه با خود آورد؟ و چگونه پایان یافت؟»
آقا/خانم مترجم، میدانم که تغییر عنوان کتاب را برای جذاب‌تر شدن و فروش بیشتر کتاب انجام می‌دهید، اما این کار نوعی خیانت در امانت و فریفتن خواننده نیست؟
November 25, 2021
Highly fascinating historical account of hyper inflation and government addiction to printing fiat.
March 22, 2023
Fiat money has always had the same conclusion - failure. Yet every instance it's "this time is different." Including the current one.
Tips for when you're trying to educate the unwashed masses on the parity between gold coin and paper money:
"To reach the climax of ferocity, the Convention decreed, in May, 1794, that the death penalty should be inflicted on any person convicted of “having asked, before a bargain was concluded, in what money payment was to be made.”
Tips for when you're trying to educate the unwashed masses on the parity between gold coin and paper money:
"To reach the climax of ferocity, the Convention decreed, in May, 1794, that the death penalty should be inflicted on any person convicted of “having asked, before a bargain was concluded, in what money payment was to be made.”
July 2, 2014
Laissez Faire Books (LFB.org) is preparing a new edition of this classic. I wrote the foreword to it. Check it out in a few weeks.
I rated it four of five stars here only because White was not a monetary economist, but, instead, a historian.
This monograph history does not set out to explain why things went wrong with the French revolutionary monetary system, but that they did, and how bad it got. (Very bad.) Dixon ably relates the dangers of politically run inflationism. He is less good on explaining how the original assignat was a true bond, but how successive issues became less bond-like and, instead, pure fiat money. He doesn't really provide theory. But the facts are there plain as day.
And sometimes jaw-droppingly horrific.
Hyperinflation and stagflation and hysterical over-reaction (wage and price controls, protectionism, confiscation, progressive taxation, the guillotine) are evils we must fight. We fight it with good policy — at the monetary, institutional level. Dixon's little book serves as a great introduction to the subject. But it is by no means the final word.
I rated it four of five stars here only because White was not a monetary economist, but, instead, a historian.
This monograph history does not set out to explain why things went wrong with the French revolutionary monetary system, but that they did, and how bad it got. (Very bad.) Dixon ably relates the dangers of politically run inflationism. He is less good on explaining how the original assignat was a true bond, but how successive issues became less bond-like and, instead, pure fiat money. He doesn't really provide theory. But the facts are there plain as day.
And sometimes jaw-droppingly horrific.
Hyperinflation and stagflation and hysterical over-reaction (wage and price controls, protectionism, confiscation, progressive taxation, the guillotine) are evils we must fight. We fight it with good policy — at the monetary, institutional level. Dixon's little book serves as a great introduction to the subject. But it is by no means the final word.
February 15, 2015
What if the key to understanding the French Revolution and its descent into the Terror wasn't the writings of Jean-Jaques Rousseau, the lack of a history of self-government amongst the people, or the rise of secularism? What if the key was money? That is, the issuance of assignats by the new government, and the quick repudiation of their real-estate-based bond elements and their de facto floating as a fiat currency?
What if it all came down to inflation?
This classic study is a must read.
Full Disclosure: I wrote the foreword to the Laissez Faire ebook edition published in 2014.
What if it all came down to inflation?
This classic study is a must read.
Full Disclosure: I wrote the foreword to the Laissez Faire ebook edition published in 2014.
Read
June 3, 2016France already did what the ECB is proposing with their collateral securitization of public property.
January 4, 2023
کتاب‌هایی که در مورد اقتصادن و احتیاج به پیش زمینه قبلی زیادی ندارن رو دوست دارم.
Read
August 25, 2021"The story of 'Fiat Money Inflation in France' is one of great interest to legislators, to economic students, and to all business and thinking men. It records the most gigantic attempt ever made in the history of the world by a government to create an inconvertible paper currency, and to maintain its circulation at various levels of value. It also records what is perhaps the greatest of all governmental efforts—with the possible exception of Diocletian's—to enact and enforce a legal limit of commodity prices. Every fetter that could hinder the will or thwart the wisdom of democracy had been shattered, and in consequence every device and expedient that untrammelled power and unrepressed optimism could conceive were brought to bear. But the attempts failed. They left behind them a legacy of moral and material desolation and woe, from which one of the most intellectual and spirited races of Europe has suffered for a century and a quarter, and will continue to suffer until the end of time. There are limitations to the powers of governments and of peoples that inhere in the constitution of things, and that neither despotisms nor democracies can overcome."
March 25, 2024
A great short economic history treatise written at start of 20th century (immediately prior to founding of FED and WWI) but nevertheless extraordinarily relevant in observations and conclusions regarding the Fiat money disaster which befell Revolutionary France prior to Napoleon's rise to power. Given current similar US fiscal and monetary policy parallels since 1972 as well as the recent actions of US politicians, bureaucrats, and Central Bankers it is unfortunate that more of our current leaders throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries have failed to read and comprehend its lessons that fiat currencies all eventually fail with the lowest members of society suffering the most as workers and those on fixed incomes were significantly disproportionately negatively affected by the inevitable hyper inflation in goods and services which accompanied the mass influx of paper currency into the economy. Followers of the Austrian School of Economics and sound money advocates will enjoy, Keynesian economists, globalists oligarchs, central & big bankers, as well as corrupt politicians and bureaucrats not so much.
August 18, 2022
I just finished the book. I believe it is a must read to learn about fiat money and inflation. The book tells the story of France but I guess this story is even today is repeating itself. There is one fact the book highlights, I was thinking about it, the cost of inflation is on the shoulders of people who can not afford to invest into physical goods(basically people with low income that gets a minimum wage).
April 5, 2018
Proof upon proof that natural laws of economy cannot be ignored or circumvented with impunity. What surprises most is that government officials and their economic advisors keep trying and the general populace continue trusting. I highly recommend this book for those who genuinely seek economic wisdom.
November 17, 2022
This was interesting to read, and it made me think of the Wild Swans book discussing all the efforts Mao went through (to disastrous effect) to make the economy work. Except in France's case the rich were getting richer and the poor and middle class were being ruined, whereas in Mao's China, the politically savvy were surviving and everyone else was getting crushed.
February 9, 2018
Interesting treatise on why you can not just print money. Shows the reasons you do not want legislators deciding the value of your money. Lots of heady topics and lots of characters, you may want to have a reference source for post Revolution France. Check it out and learn things.
May 13, 2020
A good read from late 19th Century economist Andrew Dickson White. It can give us a little insight on the infusion to the money supply and its unitended consequences. Like a fever, it will not subsist.
July 20, 2022
Great Read on Hyper-inflation History
This goes beyond the cost of goods and into how inflation depreciated society, business, etc. Eye opening and an excellent lesson on the inherent dangers of fiat moneys.
This goes beyond the cost of goods and into how inflation depreciated society, business, etc. Eye opening and an excellent lesson on the inherent dangers of fiat moneys.
November 22, 2022
This book is amazing.
When you’re hooked you cannot stop reading it.
History repeats itself. We are in the same situation right now. But even worse. This book simply shows from begin to end what paper money will do to an economy(country)
When you’re hooked you cannot stop reading it.
History repeats itself. We are in the same situation right now. But even worse. This book simply shows from begin to end what paper money will do to an economy(country)
April 26, 2020
Great book
Finest book on experiment with paper money. It's a great lesson, so very well compiled with understanding and logical presentation.
Finest book on experiment with paper money. It's a great lesson, so very well compiled with understanding and logical presentation.
June 5, 2021
Most insightful, especially considering the rabid printing that is going on now.
October 25, 2021
Horrifying insight into what can happen in a hyperinflationary envrionment no doubt fuelled by massive quantiative easing.
January 3, 2022
A study of what happens when apparently 'good' ideas devised by theorists are manipulated by schemers and legislative bodies attempt to overcome natural laws.
April 6, 2024
Short essay about monetary experiments conducted in the French Republic after the revolution.
May 1, 2024
Es un libro corto pero muy ilustrativo de las tonterías que hacen los gobiernos
July 14, 2016
Riveting title, right? Still though, borderline 3-4 stars. It was pretty dry but this is a great case study. Aka, in this example revolutionary France was printing unbacked paper money for the first time, so there is no background noise of previous monetary shocks. The narrative is therefore predicable, but much "cleaner" than some more recent examples.
Also, its brief.
Also, it conveys the impact of fiat money on all sectors of French society.
Also, its a "road to serfdom" type tale beginning with a somewhat arcane monetary reform and ending with the complete and utter brutality entailed in the war of all against all (ie statism)
Also, its brief.
Also, it conveys the impact of fiat money on all sectors of French society.
Also, its a "road to serfdom" type tale beginning with a somewhat arcane monetary reform and ending with the complete and utter brutality entailed in the war of all against all (ie statism)
March 24, 2012
A thing of beauty. My only objection is that in truth all money is ultimately fiat money, and there's a fair amount more known these days as to what drives a hyperinflation. With that caveat, White's short book can't be beat as a description of massive inflation, price controls, repression and human folly.
November 2, 2012
Don't judge this book by its title; it was anything but dull! I actually found myself laughing out loud at some of the "folly" White so colorfully describes, and the group think and the individual delusions of otherwise intelligent people were both fascinating and frightening. This book is available for FREE download here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6949.
June 12, 2013
Dr. White is the foreshadow of Reinhart and Rogoff's This Time Is Different. His writing style is much more sarcastic than theirs, and equally as researched. The parallels between the post-Revolution French government and the current US government attempts to pay off debt by inflating the money supply are striking.
June 27, 2010
Never was a subject more apropos than this at this point in time. Though the debasement of the France's money occurred over 200 years ago, the bureaucrats and politicians were saying the same things back then as they are now.
February 9, 2016
Изключителен труд, показващ как намесата на държавата чрез печатане на необезпечени пари и фиксиране на цени води до бедност и разпад на обществото. Става дума за инфлацията в следреволюционна Франция, но резултатите в съвремието са същите.
Want to read
February 8, 2017So well-written it's almost unbearable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews