Le Papier-monnaie dans la Révolution française: une analyse en termes d’économie d’émission

Abstract

Semion Anissimovitch Fal’kner’s Le Papier-monnaie dans la Révolution française: une analyse en termes d’économie d’émission is the most useful overview of the revolutionary assignat available today. It provides a comprehensive account of the legal, institutional and economic aspects of the revolutionary paper money. The work was originally published in Russian in 1919. Although a condensed version appeared in German in 1924, the work was ignored by Francophone and Anglophone scholars, with the notable exception of S.E. Harris, who cited it extensively in his 1930 classic, The Assignats. Fal’kner’s work was recently rediscovered and is now more accessible than before thanks to a French translation by Alexis Berelowitch and the editorial efforts of Serge Aberdam, Laure Després and Berelowitch. Fal’kner was a Russian economist who helped shape Soviet economic policy during the 1920s. He began writing the book in 1916, two years after the Tsarist government had started issuing paper...