6356. PAPER MONEY, English assignats.—
England is emitting assignats also,
that is to say exchequer bills, to the amount
of five millions English, or one hundred and
twenty-five millions French; and these are not
founded on land as the French assignats are,
but on pins, thread, buckles, hops, and whatever
else you will pawn in the exchequer of
double the estimated value. But we all know
that five millions of such stuff forced for sale
on the market of London, where there will be
neither cash nor credit, will not pay storage.
This paper must rest, then, ultimately on the
credit of the nation as the rest of their public
paper does, and will sink with that.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. iv, 7.
Ford ed., vi, 322.
(Pa.,
June. 1793)
