Church Lands and the Assignats

The new regime inherited the old one's debt, and in November 1789 the assembly found a dramatic solution: it placed the Church's extensive lands 'at the disposal of the nation'. Bishop Talleyrand had proposed the measure, arguing that Church property existed to serve public purposes. To raise money quickly, the state issued assignats, bonds backed by the value of these lands, which soon became paper money.

Sales of Church land transferred property to wealthy peasants and, above all, to the urban middle classes, giving buyers a strong stake in the Revolution's survival. But the government printed far more assignats than the land could back, especially once war began, and their value collapsed, fuelling inflation and popular anger over prices. The policy shows how financial necessity drove revolutionary decisions, and how a short-term fix created long-term problems.