History·22 May 2026·5 min read
The assignats — how the French Revolution printed itself into disaster
To pay its debts, revolutionary France printed money backed by land. It printed too much — and the currency became worth nothing.
After 1789, the French state was bankrupt. The solution found: the assignats — paper money backed by land confiscated from the church. At first they worked. But the government kept printing more and more to cover its expenses.
The same trap, again
The more assignats were printed, the less they were worth. Prices exploded, people refused to accept them, and by 1796 the currency was practically worthless. Exactly the lesson of 1923 Germany — only a century earlier.
Every government that discovers the money press eventually discovers its price, too.
