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Journal of Political Economy Vol. 103 No. 3 1995

Macroeconomic Features of the French Revolution

Thomas J. Sargent; François R. Velde1

1 Johns Hopkins University

Abstract

This paper describes aspects of the French Revolution from the perspective of theories about money and government budget constraints. We describe how unpleasant fiscal arithmetic gripped the Old Regime, how the Estates General responded to reorganize France's fiscal affairs, and how fiscal exigencies impelled the Revolution into a procession of monetary experiments ending in hyper-inflation.

DOI
10.1086/261992
Volume
103
Issue
3
Pages
474-518
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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