30 avril 1790
13 octobre 1791
- décrets des 19 et 21 décembre 1790 relatifs à la fabrication d’assignats.
- décret du 17 avril 1790 concernant le nombre, la forme et la fabrication des assignats.
- 19 avril 1790 : proclamation du Roi en faveur du décret sur les assignats.
- décret du 30 avril 1790 autorisant le comité des Finances à nommer quatre commissaires pour surveiller la fabrication des assignats.
- décret du 13 octobre 1791, portant établissement de sept comités, dont un « comité d’Assignats et des monnaies ».
Comité initialement composé de quatre commissaires (décret du 30 avril 1790) pour surveiller la fabrication des assignats, puis nombre porté à huit (décret du 15 novembre 1790, correctif de celui du 28 octobre) : Populus, Ledéan, Arnaud (de Saint-Flour), Guy-Blancard, Saint-Martin (d’Annonay), Papin, Leclerc (de Paris) et Périsse-Duluc.
D’après le mémoire lu par Necker à l’Assemblée nationale le 14 novembre 1789, le déficit public pour 1789 est estimé à 90 millions de livres. Pour honorer une telle dette et rétablir la confiance publique, l’Assemblée se résout à l’émission de papier monnaie gagé sur la vente des biens ecclésiastiques : elle décrète la fabrication d’assignats pour un montant strictement équivalent à celui de la valeur des biens qu’elle jugerait à propos de mettre en vente. Ces assignats sont destinés en priorité au paiement des dettes publiques, puis au remboursement du capital des rentes viagères, puis celui des charges, offices, etc.
En exécution des décrets des 19 et 21 décembre 1789, il est émis, sur la Caisse de l’extraordinaire, pour 400 millions d’assignats, productifs d’un intérêt de 5 % et admis de préférence dans le paiement des biens nationaux. Les assignats donnés en paiement par les acquéreurs de biens nationaux sont brûlés, afin de ne conserver en circulation qu’une quantité d’assignats égale à la valeur des biens nationaux dont ils sont le gage. La chute de la valeur de l’assignat a donné lieu à une crise financière de grande ampleur, mais qui a mobilisé davantage le comité des Finances que celui d’Aliénation. Les procédures administratives restent relativement imperméables à ce genre de cataclysme, dans la limite de réajustements dans les équivalences de valeur entre l’assignat et le numéraire.
La création d’un comité des Assignats, le 30 avril 1790, est consécutive à un rapport fait à l’Assemblée nationale constituante par Anson, au nom du comité des Finances, dans lequel il présente les enjeux de l’émission de ce papier monnaie et la nécessité d’établir un comité de l’Assemblée qui soit spécialement chargé d’en surveiller la fabrication et la mise en circulation (9 avril 1790) :
« Les assignats doivent tout à la fois suppléer à la rareté du numéraire et prendre la place des anticipations [sur les revenus ordinaires] ; c’est donc principalement sur leur valeur, leur activité, leur forme et leur quotité, que je viens vous proposer aujourd’hui, au nom de votre comité, de prendre une délibération définitive. […] Votre comité des Finances, qui, dans le courant de ce mois, vous présentera le tableau de la dette constituée, a dû, dans les circonstances présentes, et d’après vos derniers décrets, chercher préalablement les moyens de pourvoir au service de 1790. […]
Je ne vous retracerai point le tableau de nos embarras : c’est en même temps la plus facile et la plus triste partie de notre ouvrage ; il suffit de vous rappeler que 300 millions manquent cette année à vos revenus, si vous vous déterminez à renoncer sur le champ à la ressource des anticipations, qui en forment environ 130 ; que, de quelque manière que votre comité ait combiné les ressources de l’année présente, un vide de 130 millions se trouve toujours ouvert devant vous ; que la Caisse d’escompte, à laquelle vous en devez 170, ne peut plus supporter le fardeau des secours que vous avez exigés d’elle ; qu’il devient urgent de remplacer ce numéraire insuffisant par un autre ; que Paris ne peut faire de plus longs sacrifices sur un papier dont le cours est à peu près renfermé dans l’enceinte de ses murailles ; qu’une portion des intérêts arriérés représente l’aliment nécessaire aux malheureux rentiers, dont la patience et le patriotisme ont tant contribué aux succès de vos travaux. […]
On vous a présenté, on vous présentera sans doute encore, des moyens moins tranchants que l’émission d’une certaine quantité d’assignats en circulation : on vous parlera de donner un intérêt à ceux de la Caisse d’escompte, en les faisant circuler dans les provinces ; on vous offrira de faire négocier, à gros intérêt, des assignats vis-à-vis de vos créances ; on vous reparlera de l’établissement d’une banque nationale à la place de la Caisse d’escompte ; on vous engagera même à user encore quelque temps du secours intermédiaire des anticipations. Mais d’abord, Messieurs, il faudrait, dans les circonstances présentes, employer presque tous ces moyens à la fois, pour obvier aux diverses difficultés qui nous assiègent ; et alors, de cette complication même naîtrait plus d’incertitude encore pour le succès. En second lieu, tous ces moyens nous ont paru aussi ruineux qu’impraticables ; […].
Nous n’avons plus le choix des moyens pour arriver au terme : nous sommes entraînés irrésistiblement vers la circulation d’un papier national ; […].
Ce que l’on appelle ordinairement un papier-monnaie, ou même billet d’État, repose simplement sur une hypothèque générale : les assignats, au contraire, seront le signe représentatif d’une créance déléguée avec hypothèque spéciale sur des immeubles. […]
Dans le moment actuel, il est au moins indispensable de dégager la portion des biens ecclésiastiques qui va être mise en vente de toute hypothèque et privilège ; de la présenter parfaitement libre à ceux qui vont les recevoir […].
Il a paru sans doute très convenable, et j’ose dire très politique, de transmettre la propriété des biens ecclésiastiques, dès à présent, aux municipalités, d’exproprier ces biens, pour me servir de l’expression d’un de nos orateurs ; et déjà on en éprouve les heureux effets. […] il est donc temps, Messieurs, de poser sur la base d’un crédit vraiment national le type du remboursement successif de la dette publique. […]
Les assignats sur les biens du domaine et du clergé, outre l’avantage de la circulation, auront une valeur complète, puisqu’ils sont le signe représentatif d’une valeur qui n’a point d’alliage, celle d’un immeuble cédé par la nation, qui, d’après vos décrets, aura nécessairement une valeur équivalente. Ils ne sont que des subdivisions des obligations que les municipalités déposeront dans la caisse de l’Extraordinaire. […] ; ils auront, de plus, la valeur monétaire que leur imprimera le sceau de l’État ; ils auront, enfin, une valeur immobilière que n’a jamais eue jusqu’à présent le papier d’aucune nation. […]
Les assignats circulant offriront, par-dessus tous les autres avantages qui vous ont été exposés, celui que n’a pas le numéraire métallique, lorsque vous leur aurez attribué un intérêt raisonnable. […]
Nous ne devons pas d’ailleurs perdre de vue les différentes destinations de l’assignat ayant cours. L’une est de ramener le numéraire d’argent dans la circulation, par l’avantage qu’il aura sur les espèces stagnantes et non productives ; et de l’élévation de l’escompte même naîtra, dans l’esprit des possesseurs de l’argent, le désir de placer en assignats, pour profiter à leur tour du bénéfice de cette élévation ; mais il ne faut pas oublier, non plus, que les assignats devant suppléer pendant quelque temps aux espèces qui nous fuient, il serait dangereux de trop diminuer la rapidité de leur circulation par un intérêt trop fort. […]
Votre comité vous propose donc, Messieurs, de donner 4,5 % d’intérêt aux nouveaux assignats. […]
Aussitôt après la fabrication des nouveaux assignats, la manière de nous acquitter avec ces actionnaires sera bien simple. Le trésorier de l’Extraordinaire retirera des mains du public les billets de la Caisse d’escompte, et aussitôt il rendra à cette caisse le papier qu’elle nous avait prêté ; […]
Quant à la quotité de l’émission des assignats, […], ne pas la porter au-delà de 400 millions. Le premier motif est qu’il serait imprudent de ne pas la fixer au-dessous de la quotité des impositions. Il ne faut pas perdre de vue que c’est par le paiement des impositions que circulera le plus rapidement la masse divisée des nouveaux assignats, […]. Le second motif nous paraît plus puissant encore. Quelle est la nature des nouveaux assignats ? c’est celle d’une délégation sur le prix de la vente prochaine d’un immeuble : voilà ce qui rend ce numéraire digne de la plus grande confiance. Pour que cette confiance soit pleinement assurée, pour que rien n’altère la matière connue et durable dont il est composé, il est impossible d’excéder la somme des 400 millions qui la composent. Il faut que chaque assignat corresponde, pour ainsi dire, aux yeux de tous, avec l’arpent de terre qu’il représentera. […] »
Les fondements, la quotité et l’intérêt des assignats étant fixés par l’Assemblée préalablement à la création du comité, ses fonctions relèvent davantage de la surveillance que de la préparation du travail législatif.
Le 13 octobre 1791, les députés de l’Assemblée législative votent la fusion du comité des Assignats et de celui des Monnaies en un comité des Assignats et monnaies, chargé de surveiller la fabrication des monnaies et l’exécution des règlements concernant les titres des métaux et de préparer des projets de lois relatifs à ces objets (décret du 5 décembre 1791).
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