diff --git a/lectures/french_rev.md b/lectures/french_rev.md index 5d012891..1f5aec0d 100644 --- a/lectures/french_rev.md +++ b/lectures/french_rev.md @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Some of those theories about monetary and fiscal policies still interest us toda * mathematics involving compound interest governed French government debt dynamics in the decades preceding 1789; according to leading historians, that arithmetic set the stage for the French Revolution -* a **real bills** theory of the effects of government open market operations in which the government *backs* new issues of paper money with government holdings of valuable real property or financial assets that holders of money can purchase from the government in exchange for their money. +* a *real bills* theory of the effects of government open market operations in which the government *backs* new issues of paper money with government holdings of valuable real property or financial assets that holders of money can purchase from the government in exchange for their money. * The Revolutionaries learned about this theory from Adam Smith's 1776 book The Wealth of Nations {cite}`smith2010wealth` and other contemporary sources @@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ Figure {numref}`fr_fig2` indicates that Eighteenth-century British fiscal policy portrayed Figure {numref}`fr_fig2` thus looks very much like a text-book example of a *tax-smoothing* model like Robert Barro's {cite}`Barro1979`. -A striking feature of the graph is what we'll lagel a *law of gravity* between tax collections and government expenditures. +A striking feature of the graph is what we'll label a *law of gravity* between tax collections and government expenditures. * levels of government expenditures at taxes attract each other * while they can temporarily differ -- as they do during wars -- they come back together when peace returns @@ -366,10 +366,10 @@ This coincidence fostered a three step plan for servicing the French government * sell the church lands * use the proceeds from those sales to service or even retire French government debt -The monetary theory underlying this plan had been set out by Adam Smith in his analysis of what he called **real bills** in his 1776 book +The monetary theory underlying this plan had been set out by Adam Smith in his analysis of what he called *real bills* in his 1776 book **The Wealth of Nations** {cite}`smith2010wealth`, which many of the revolutionaries had read. -Adam Smith defined a **real bill** as a paper money note that is backed by a claims on a real asset like productive capital or inventories. +Adam Smith defined a *real bill* as a paper money note that is backed by a claims on a real asset like productive capital or inventories. The National Assembly put together an ingenious institutional arrangement to implement this plan. @@ -624,7 +624,7 @@ of our episodes, in which real balances decline and prices rise rapidly. We interpret these three episodes in terms of distinct theories -* a **backing** or **real bills** theory (the classic text for this theory is Adam Smith {cite}`smith2010wealth`) +* a *backing* or *real bills* theory (the classic text for this theory is Adam Smith {cite}`smith2010wealth`) * a legal restrictions theory ( {cite}`keynes1940pay`, {cite}`bryant1984price` ) * a classical hyperinflation theory ({cite}`Cagan`) * @@ -695,7 +695,7 @@ hyperinflations. -* subperiod 1: ("**real bills** period): January 1791 to July 1793 +* subperiod 1: ("*real bills* period): January 1791 to July 1793 * subperiod 2: ("terror"): August 1793 - July 1794 @@ -815,7 +815,7 @@ plt.tight_layout() plt.show() ``` -Now let's regress inflation on real balances during the **real bills** period and plot the regression +Now let's regress inflation on real balances during the *real bills* period and plot the regression line. ```{code-cell} ipython3 @@ -851,7 +851,7 @@ plt.show() The regression line in {numref}`fr_fig104c` shows that large increases in real balances of assignats (paper money) were accompanied by only modest rises in the price level, an outcome in line -with the **real bills** theory. +with the *real bills* theory. During this period, assignats were claims on church lands.