ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the emergence of a national currency in France before 1789 and the reasons for this transformation. The first part briefly describes the rise of a primitive royal currency based on coins and money of account, down to the early seventeenth century. The second part analyses the changes in this system during the period from about 1630 to 1726, when the French livre gradually took on the stability characteristic of money in a currency union, and the third part discusses the reasons for this change.