France - Assignats

La Banque Royale

In 1716, John Law created the Banque Générale (Banque Générale Privée), a private bank which was quickly nationalized and renamed Banque Royale. Along with Louis XV providing government funding, Law funded the bank and applied his own untried economic theories to this first French central bank. This was the first French Bank issuing paper money that was only partially backed by silver. After some initial success, the Banque Royale failed in 1720, just two years after its creation, having created an environment of hyper-inflation and public mistrust of a banking system.

A very brief discussion of French units of currency

Through the Middle Ages to the 1200's, there was no homogeneous unit of currency used across France. France used the livre after the Roman unight of weight, and a livre was made up of 20 Sous, each divided into 12 Derniers, but the various duchies had their own version and valuation of the currency. In the 1200's, King Philip II began France's standardization to the Livre Tournois (Livre made in Tours, symbol "₶"). The Livre Tournois lasted until 1795, when France introduced the franc (valued at 1₶, 3d).

During this period, French coinage was issued in francs, écu, écu d'or, and gros d'argent, which all had monetary equivalents to the livre and dernier, though the livre tournois was the standard for large transactions.

Assemblée Nationale

In December of 1789, the National Assembly of the revolutionary government authorized the issuance of bonds, called Assignats, backed by sized royal and church properties ("Domaines Nationaux"). These were not initially intended to be used as currency, but as a way for the state to pay its debts, and for a time were successful. Within a year, with the country's economy in need of support, the Assignat was converted to legal tender. The Assignat was used through the rest of the revolution until its complete collapse in February of 1797.