lution had been stated by a true statesman
and sound financier, Du Pont de Nemours, at the very beginning. He had
shown that using the same paper as a circulating medium and as a means
for selling the national real estate was like using the same implement
for an oyster knife and a razor. [54]

It has been argued that the _assignats_ sank in value because they were
not well secured,--that securing them on government real estate was as
futile as if the United States had, in the financial troubles of its
early days, secured notes on its real estate. This objection is utterly
fallacious. The government lands of our country were remote from the
centers of capital and difficult to examine; the French national real
estate was near these centers--even _in_ them--and easy to examine.
Our national real estate was unimproved and unproductive; theirs
was improved and productive--its average productiveness in market in
ordinary times being from four to five per cent. [55]

It has also been objected that the attempt to secure the _assignats_ on
government real estate failed because of the general want of confidence
in the title derived by the purchasers from the new government. Every
thorough student of that period must know that this is a misleading
statement. Everything shows that the vast majority of the French people
had a fanatical confidence in the stability of the new government during
the greater part of the Revolution. There were disbelievers in the
security of the _assignats_ just as there were disbelievers in the
paper money of the United States throughout our Civil War; but they were
usually a small minority. Even granting that there was a doubt as to
investment in French lands, the French people certainly had as much
confidence in the secure possession of government lands as any people
can ever have in large issues of government bonds: indeed, it is certain
that they had far more confidence in their lands as a security than
modern nations can usually have in large issues of bonds obtained by
payments of irredeemable paper. One simple fact, as stated by John
Stuart Mill, which made _assignats_ difficult to convert into real
estate was that the vast majority of people could not afford to make
investments outside their business; and this fact is no less fatal
to any attempt to contract large issues of irredeemable paper--save,
perhaps, a bold, statesmanlike attempt, which seizes the best time and
presses every advantage, e