An insurrection of
these radicals--the forerunners of modern Socialism--was suppressed and
Babeuf was put to death in 1797.
[Sidenote: Financial Difficulties]
While sincere radicals and convinced reactionaries were uniting in
common opposition to the unhappy Directory, the finances of the state
were again becoming hopelessly involved. "Graft" flourished unbridled
in the levying and collecting of the taxes and in all public
expenditures. To the extravagance of the Directors in internal
administration were added the financial necessities of armies
aggregating a million men. Paris, still in poverty and want, had to be
fed at the expense of the nation. And the issue of _assignats_ by
the National Constituent Assembly, intended at first only as a
temporary expedient, had been continued until by the year 1797 the
total face value of the _assignats_ amounted to about forty-five
billion _livres_. So far had the value of paper money depreciated,
however, that in March, 1796, three hundred _livres_ in
_assignats_ were required to secure one _livre_ in cash.
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