tagnant.
Mirabeau, in his speech which decided the second great issue of paper,
had insisted that, though bankers might suffer, this issue would be of
great service to manufacturers and restore prosperity to them and their
workmen. The latter were for a time deluded, but were at last rudely
awakened from this delusion. The plenty of currency had at first
stimulated production and created a great activity in manufactures, but
soon the markets were glutted and the demand was diminished. In spite of
the wretched financial policy of years gone by, and especially in spite
of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by which religious bigotry
had driven out of the kingdom thousands of its most skillful Protestant
workmen, the manufactures of France had before the Revolution come into
full bloom. In the finer woolen goods, in silk and satin fabrics of all
sorts, in choice pottery and porcelain, in manufactures of iron, steel,
and copper, they had again taken their old leading place upon the
Continent. All the previous changes had, at the worst, done no more
than to inflict a momentary check on this highly developed system of
manufactures. But what the bigotry of Louis XIV and the shiftlessness
of Louis XV could not do in nearly a century, was accomplished by this
tampering with the currency in a few months. One manufactory after
another stopped. At one town, Lodeve, five thousand workmen were
discharged from the cloth manufactories. Every cause except the right
one was assigned for this. Heavy duties were put upon foreign goods;
everything that tariffs and custom-houses could do was done. Still the
great manufactories of Normandy were closed, those of the rest of the
kingdom speedily followed, and vast numbers of workmen in all parts of
the country were thrown out of employment. [30] Nor was this the case
with the home demand alone. The foreign demand, which at first had been
stimulated, soon fell off. In no way can this be better stated than by
one of the most thoughtful historians of modern times, who says, "It is
true that at first the _assignats_ gave the same impulse to business
in the city as in the country, but the apparent improvement had no firm
foundation, even in the towns. Whenever a great quantity of paper money
is suddenly issued we invariably see a rapid increase of trade. The
great quantity of the circulating medium sets in motion all the energies
of commerce and manufactures; capital for investment is more easily