proverbial timidity by retiring out of sight as far as possible;
throughout the land was stagnation.

Statesmanlike measures, careful watching and wise management would,
doubtless, have ere long led to a return of confidence, a reappearance
of money and a resumption of business; but these involved patience and
self-denial, and, thus far in human history, these are the rarest
products of political wisdom. Few nations have ever been able to
exercise these virtues; and France was not then one of these few.[2]

There was a general search for some short road to prosperity: ere long
the idea was set afloat that the great want of the country was more of
the circulating medium; and this was speedily followed by calls for an
issue of paper money. The Minister of Finance at this period was
Necker. In financial ability he was acknowledged as among the great
bankers of Europe, but his was something more than financial ability:
he had a deep feeling of patriotism and a high sense of personal
honor. The difficulties in his way were great, but he steadily
endeavored to keep France faithful to those principles in monetary
affairs which the general experience of modem times had found the only
path to national safety. As difficulties arose the National Assembly
drew away from him, and soon came among the members renewed
suggestions of paper money: orators in public meetings, at the clubs
and in the Assembly, proclaimed it a panacea--a way of "securing
resources without paying interest." Journalists caught it up and
displayed its beauties, among these men, Marat, who, in his newspaper,
"The Friend of the People," also joined the cries against Necker,
picturing him--a man of sterling honesty, who gave up health and
fortune for the sake of France--as a wretch seeking only to enrich
himself from the public purse.