found than usual and trade perpetually receives fresh nutriment. If this
paper represents real credit, founded upon order and legal security,
from which it can derive a firm and lasting value, such a movement may
be the starting point of a great and widely-extended prosperity, as, for
instance, a splendid improvement in English agriculture was undoubtedly
owing to the emancipation of the country bankers. If on the contrary,
the new paper is of precarious value, as was clearly seen to be the case
with the French _assignats_ as early as February, 1791, it can confer no
lasting benefits. For the moment, perhaps, business receives an impulse,
all the more violent because every one endeavors to invest his doubtful
paper in buildings, machines and goods, which, under all circumstances,
retain some intrinsic value. Such a movement was witnessed in France
in 1791, and from every quarter there came satisfactory reports of the
activity of manufactures."

"But, for the moment, the French manufacturers derived great advantage
from this state of things. As their products could be so cheaply paid
for, orders poured in from foreign countries to such a degree that it
was often difficult for the manufacturers to satisfy their customers.
It is easy to see that prosperity of this kind must very soon find
its limit.... When a further fall in the _assignats_ took place this
prosperity would necessarily collapse, and be succeeded by a crisis
all the more destructive the more deeply men had engaged in speculation
under the influence of the first favorable prospects." [31]

Thus came a collapse in manufacturing and commerce, just as it had come
previously in France: just as it came at various periods in Austria,
Russia, America, and in all countries where men have tried to build up
prosperity on irredeemable paper. [32]

All this breaking down of the manufactures and commerce of the nation
made fearful inroads on the greater fortunes; but upon the lesser, and
upon the little properties of the masses of the nation who relied upon
their labor, it pressed with intense severity. The capitalist could put
his surplus paper money into the government lands and await results; but
the men who needed their money from day to day suffered the worst of
the misery. Still another difficulty appeared. There had come a complete
uncertainty as to the future. Long before the close of 1791 no one knew
whether a piece of paper money representing a hundred _livres