The paper money issued by Colbert's successor, Chamillard, soon lost on account of its too great amount, 25 per cent. of its value, spite of the fact that it bore interest, and that ¼ of all payments to private persons had to be made in it. (Forbonnais, Recherches et Considérations, II, 182.) When the people of the United States, in 1775, issued paper money, it did not decline in value up to the end of 1776, so long as the amount did not exceed $20,000,000, as it was considered a matter of honor to take it at par. Afterwards, when the amount issued continued to increase, not even the law that a refusal to accept it, or insisting on taking it below par, should be punished with the loss of the commodity, and that the guilty party should be declared a national enemy, could keep it from declining in value; so that in May, 1871, a dollar in specie was worth $200.5 in paper. Compare Franklin, Works, ed. Sparks, II, 421, VIII, 328, 505.
France, during the Reign of Terror, on the 2d day of April 1793, threatened the claiming of a discount in the taking of assignats with six years' confinement in chains, and on the 1st day of August, on Couthon's motion, with twenty years' confinement. In addition to this, maximum prices for the principal necessities of life were fixed and the exceeding of them was punished by severe penalties; and in France, and still more in the neighboring conquered countries, there were many persons who preferred to take assignats instead of payment rather than permit themselves to be robbed by requisitions. And yet on the 4th of June, 1796, one franc in specie exchanged for 800 francs assignats. Compare Büsch, Geldumlauf, III (§ 58 ff., d'Ivernois, Etat. des Finances Française, 1796).