prosperity to them and their workmen. The latter were for a time
deluded, but were at last rudely awakened from this delusion. The
plenty of currency had at first stimulated production and created a
great activity in manufactures, but soon the markets were glutted and
the demand was diminished. In spite of the wretched financial policy
of years gone by, and especially in spite of the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, by which religious bigotry had driven out of the
kingdom thousands of its most skillful Protestant workmen, the
manufactures of France had before the Revolution come into full bloom.
In the finer woolen goods, in silk and satin fabrics of all sorts, in
choice pottery and porcelain, in manufactures of iron, steel, and
copper, they had again taken their old leading place upon the
Continent. All the previous changes had, at the worst, done no more
than to inflict a momentary check on this highly developed system of
manufactures. But what the bigotry of Louis XIV and the shiftlessness
of Louis XV could not do in nearly a century, was accomplished by this
tampering with the currency in a few months. One manufactory after
another stopped. At one town, Lodève, five thousand workmen were
discharged from the cloth manufactories. Every cause except the right
one was assigned for this. Heavy duties were put upon foreign goods;
everything that tariffs and custom-houses could do was done. Still
the great manufactories of Normandy were closed, those of the rest of
the kingdom speedily followed, and vast numbers of workmen in all
parts of the country were thrown out of employment.[30] Nor was this
the case with the home demand alone. The foreign demand, which at
first had been stimulated, soon fell off. In no way can this be
better stated than by one of the most thoughtful historians of modern
times, who says, "It is true that at first the _assignats_ gave the
same impulse to business in the city as in the country, but the
apparent improvement had no firm foundation, even in the towns.