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Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution
Rebecca L. Spang, who revolutionized our understanding of the restaurant, has written a new history of money. It uses one of the most infamous examples of monetary innovation, the assignats--a currency initially defined by French revolutionaries as "circulating land"--to demonstrate that money is as much a social and political mediator as it is an economic instrument. Following the assignats from creation to abandonment, Spang shows them to be subject to the same slippages between policies and practice, intentions and outcomes, as other human inventions.
But Spang's book is also a new history of the French Revolution, one in which radicalization was driven by an ever-widening gap between political ideals and the realities of daily life. Money played a critical role in creating this gulf. Wed to the idea that liberty required economic deregulation as well as political freedom, revolutionary legislators extended the notion of free trade to include "freedom of money." The consequences were disastrous. Backed neither by the weight of tradition nor by the state that issued them, the assignats could not be a functioning currency. Ever reluctant to interfere in the workings of the market, lawmakers thought changes to the material form of the assignats should suffice to enhance their credibility. Their hopes were disappointed, and the Revolution spiraled out of control.
Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution restores economics, in the broadest sense, to its rightful place at the heart of the Revolution and hence to that of modern politics.
But Spang's book is also a new history of the French Revolution, one in which radicalization was driven by an ever-widening gap between political ideals and the realities of daily life. Money played a critical role in creating this gulf. Wed to the idea that liberty required economic deregulation as well as political freedom, revolutionary legislators extended the notion of free trade to include "freedom of money." The consequences were disastrous. Backed neither by the weight of tradition nor by the state that issued them, the assignats could not be a functioning currency. Ever reluctant to interfere in the workings of the market, lawmakers thought changes to the material form of the assignats should suffice to enhance their credibility. Their hopes were disappointed, and the Revolution spiraled out of control.
Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution restores economics, in the broadest sense, to its rightful place at the heart of the Revolution and hence to that of modern politics.
360 pages, Hardcover
First published November 17, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 25, 2015
I've been waiting for this book forever.
Well, what I've been waiting for forever is an explanation of the economics of the period from 1780-1830, considered as one whole thing, because people only seem interested in examining one tiny tranche of it at a time -- as if periodization has gone mad, and people literally can't think of the economics of the old regime and the Revolution and Napoleon and the Restoration all at the same time without their heads exploding. Spang proves this wrong. She answers questions I've had for literally years, about why the new government cut Louis head off but didn't repudiate his debts, about how Napoleon could afford an army to conquer Europe when the Republic had just been all but bankrupt.
This isn't an economics book, it's a book about the history of money, but it has a great deal of economics in it. Spanmg recognises trust as being a significant factor in commerce, with really fascinating examples.
To make it even better, it's a lively book, well written with great quotes from letters and court cases, as well as the kinds of sources you'd expect. She does brilliantly at showing us period attitudes to money and the economy, as the period went through its changes and revolutions. I'd have liked more on the later part, but even skimming things there puts it streets ahead of everything else.
I loved this book. It was almost exactly what I wanted. I'm delighted it exists. Well worth the extravagant Kindle price.
I'm not sure who the constituency is for it, apart from historians of the French Revolution and me, but I recommend it to anyone interested in how much of the way economies actually work depends on public confidence.
Terrific book.
Well, what I've been waiting for forever is an explanation of the economics of the period from 1780-1830, considered as one whole thing, because people only seem interested in examining one tiny tranche of it at a time -- as if periodization has gone mad, and people literally can't think of the economics of the old regime and the Revolution and Napoleon and the Restoration all at the same time without their heads exploding. Spang proves this wrong. She answers questions I've had for literally years, about why the new government cut Louis head off but didn't repudiate his debts, about how Napoleon could afford an army to conquer Europe when the Republic had just been all but bankrupt.
This isn't an economics book, it's a book about the history of money, but it has a great deal of economics in it. Spanmg recognises trust as being a significant factor in commerce, with really fascinating examples.
To make it even better, it's a lively book, well written with great quotes from letters and court cases, as well as the kinds of sources you'd expect. She does brilliantly at showing us period attitudes to money and the economy, as the period went through its changes and revolutions. I'd have liked more on the later part, but even skimming things there puts it streets ahead of everything else.
I loved this book. It was almost exactly what I wanted. I'm delighted it exists. Well worth the extravagant Kindle price.
I'm not sure who the constituency is for it, apart from historians of the French Revolution and me, but I recommend it to anyone interested in how much of the way economies actually work depends on public confidence.
Terrific book.
April 20, 2017
A thorough hermeneutic of the attempts to create, craft, and manipulate value through the material and semiotic properties of the assignat, the invented currency (notionally backed by nationalized Church lands) of the early French Revolution, which collapsed in 1796. The parallel work in improvising a polity, 'citizens', and money involved a tangled web of ideational fibres that sometimes crossed, sometimes ran together, and sometimes wound back upon themselves. As a case study in the desire to materialize ideals, to stamp and engrave them into the world, Spang's study is of the very first rank. It is bigger than either a history of money or of the French Revolution (though it is clearly both): more than either, it is a sort of anthropology of the hiatus between words, things, and the uncertainty of action.
At times Spang gets a little carried away with the argument, stretching it perhaps to cover a little too much of the ideational garden of the Revolution. But she can be forgiven for this, because the yield is satisfying. As with any good history book, it makes one see not only its subject, but the world around, in new ways.
At times Spang gets a little carried away with the argument, stretching it perhaps to cover a little too much of the ideational garden of the Revolution. But she can be forgiven for this, because the yield is satisfying. As with any good history book, it makes one see not only its subject, but the world around, in new ways.
February 8, 2016
A fantastic material history of the French Revolution that appropriately highlights the elitist nature of what was considered 'the people' and who 'the people' actually were at the time of the revolution. Uses the evolution of money as the narrative focal point which effectively illustrates the difficulties the National Assembly faced in its project to rebuild French society. The only point that the book lacked was the personal nature of the Old Regime credit economy and how reputation and respectability were key determiners of economic credibility. By ignoring this I feel that the author's argument for a continuation of value thought structures between regimes remains somewhat incomplete.
April 21, 2026
Incredibly original numismatic research, and highly compelling.
In the prelude of the revolution, Frances financial system operated on rentes. Rentes were basically purchased income (you give a fixed amount for a steady stream) this arrangement was to avoid usury (technically no interest occurs). For most people life surrounded slow credit and debt relations. Fiscal crisis from the 7 years war and American revolution leads the monarchy to consider higher taxes, opposed by the Assembly.
The Assembly's overthrow of monarchal power, but inheritance of their debt, leads to the nationalisation of Catholic land, which backs a new currency, the assignat. The assignat is a paper currency backed by the Biens Nationaux.
The Assignat has two functions:
1. Force circulation of metal currency/small change
→ This requires the assignats to be 'good money' to drive out the 'bad money'. Assignats need to be easily and universally exchangeable. Tension between liberty of commerce (merchandising of money, repealing anti-usury laws) and the forcing of this universal exchangability (forcing merchants to accept assignats).
2. Clear fiscal debts from the Ancien Régime by selling land.
→ Assignats are 'burned' once they purchase land. Essentially since land is the collateral behind the assignat, once the collateral is realised the debt disappears, hence why French revolutionaries wanted its destruction.
For the Assembly, the assignat would've been a stream, from state mint to the burn pit, which would have rejuvenated France by circulating small change, and initiating a wealth transfer of the immovables (a category in French law which according to physiocratic economic theory generated real wealth).
This vision is thwarted, technical constraints meant production was difficult (manifested in a constant anxiety of, and violence against, during the September massacres, of counterfeiters and Émigrés). Further, because the assignat is backed by French land, it fails to circulate internationally, so commerce on the boarder does not accept the assignat. This leads to the assignat depreciating, becoming the bad money which it swore to drive out. Further, the assignat could not be broken into smaller instruments, with attempts to do so in the form of Billets being squashed by the Assembly (seen as attempts to undermine the Assembly's monetary sovereignty), thereby failing to alleviate the short-change crisis afflicting French Commerce.
Another interesting point is Rebecca Spang’s critique of the orthodox quantity theory of money, which states inflation is always a monetary phenomenon, by highlighting QTOM remedies to the Assembly’s fiscal issues is what led to hyperinflation (since the reduction of the money supply undermines confidence which leads to more money depreciation).
The story of the Assignat illustrates the tension between popular sovereignty and individual liberty, and the role of monetary economics in statecraft.
In the prelude of the revolution, Frances financial system operated on rentes. Rentes were basically purchased income (you give a fixed amount for a steady stream) this arrangement was to avoid usury (technically no interest occurs). For most people life surrounded slow credit and debt relations. Fiscal crisis from the 7 years war and American revolution leads the monarchy to consider higher taxes, opposed by the Assembly.
The Assembly's overthrow of monarchal power, but inheritance of their debt, leads to the nationalisation of Catholic land, which backs a new currency, the assignat. The assignat is a paper currency backed by the Biens Nationaux.
The Assignat has two functions:
1. Force circulation of metal currency/small change
→ This requires the assignats to be 'good money' to drive out the 'bad money'. Assignats need to be easily and universally exchangeable. Tension between liberty of commerce (merchandising of money, repealing anti-usury laws) and the forcing of this universal exchangability (forcing merchants to accept assignats).
2. Clear fiscal debts from the Ancien Régime by selling land.
→ Assignats are 'burned' once they purchase land. Essentially since land is the collateral behind the assignat, once the collateral is realised the debt disappears, hence why French revolutionaries wanted its destruction.
For the Assembly, the assignat would've been a stream, from state mint to the burn pit, which would have rejuvenated France by circulating small change, and initiating a wealth transfer of the immovables (a category in French law which according to physiocratic economic theory generated real wealth).
This vision is thwarted, technical constraints meant production was difficult (manifested in a constant anxiety of, and violence against, during the September massacres, of counterfeiters and Émigrés). Further, because the assignat is backed by French land, it fails to circulate internationally, so commerce on the boarder does not accept the assignat. This leads to the assignat depreciating, becoming the bad money which it swore to drive out. Further, the assignat could not be broken into smaller instruments, with attempts to do so in the form of Billets being squashed by the Assembly (seen as attempts to undermine the Assembly's monetary sovereignty), thereby failing to alleviate the short-change crisis afflicting French Commerce.
Another interesting point is Rebecca Spang’s critique of the orthodox quantity theory of money, which states inflation is always a monetary phenomenon, by highlighting QTOM remedies to the Assembly’s fiscal issues is what led to hyperinflation (since the reduction of the money supply undermines confidence which leads to more money depreciation).
The story of the Assignat illustrates the tension between popular sovereignty and individual liberty, and the role of monetary economics in statecraft.
June 21, 2020
honestly the most fun book i’ve read in a bit — totally awesome combination of rigor, specificity and genuine and wide-ranging intellectual curiosity — Spang can’t quite be identified as even Marx-ish, though she’s clearly partially indebted — nonetheless, for those with a particular interest in both money / the French Revolution from a (broadly speaking) value-form / Marxist perspective, this can be read between the lines with enormous profit.
April 7, 2019
Many fascinating details and usually convincing analysis
Read
February 11, 2025economic history is not the vibe
March 25, 2015
Rebecca Spang knocks it out of the park again. This is a fascinating study of French currency in the prelude, duration, and aftermath of the French revolution. It focuses on money-as-object, unusual given the tendency of a lot of financial history to forget that the physical form that money takes is important. This take is particularly useful in France in this era, where many, many different kinds of money were running around all at once. Backed, unbacked, backed by different things, colloquial, governmental, and so on. Exchange rates between theoretically convertible currencies never were quite able to stick. Definitely a recommendation.
December 7, 2015
A history of the assignat. Illustrations of some of the various issues. Some interesting facts (for example that some assignats came with coupons that could be used as change).
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews