Fiat Money Inflation in France

Conventional histories of the French Revolution ignore the economic conditions under the monarchy. In Fiat Money Inflation in France Andrew Dickson White puts the monetary story at the center of the action. In his eyes, it is a leading factor that caused a national catastrophe.

The French government attempted to create an incontrovertible paper currency and force the market to use it while manipulating its value. This inflation was accompanied by the largest price fixing scheme any government had attempted since Ancient Rome.

Together the inflation and price controls brought commerce and manufacturers to ruin. It destroyed people’s way of life.

Throughout the book White shows how the Government’s wishes are always powerless against the laws of economics. Despots cannot change the nature of the world we live in.

First written in 1896, this study has not been surpassed, and is still seen as one of the seminal works on the economic history of the French Revolution.