The first new expedient of the Directory was to secure a forced loan of six hundred million _francs_ from the wealthier classes; but this was found fruitless. Ominous it was when persons compelled to take this loan found for an _assignat_ of one hundred _francs_ only one franc was allowed. Next a National Bank was proposed; but capitalists were loath to embark in banking while the howls of the mob against all who had anything especially to do with money resounded in every city. At last the Directory bethought themselves of another expedient. This was by no means new. It had been fully tried on our continent twice before that time: and once, since--first, in our colonial period; next, during our Confederation; lastly, by the "Southern Confederacy" and here, as elsewhere, always in vain. But experience yielded to theory--plain business sense to financial metaphysics. It was determined to issue a new paper which should be "fully secured" and "as good as gold." Pursuant to this decision it was decreed that a new paper money "fully secured and as good as gold" be issued under the name of "_mandats_." In order that these new notes should be "fully secured," choice public real estate was set apart to an amount fully equal to the nominal value of the issue, and any one offering any amount of the _mandats_ could at once take possession of government lands; the price of the lands to be determined by two experts, one named by the government and one by the buyer, and without the formalities and delays previously established in regard to the purchase of lands with _assignats_. Perhaps the most whimsical thing in the whole situation was the fact that the government, pressed as it was by demands of all sorts, continued to issue the old _assignats_ at the same time that it was discrediting them by issuing the new _mandats_. And yet in order to make the _mandats_ "as good as gold" it was planned by forced loans and other means to reduce the quantity of _assignats_ in circulation, so that the value of each _assignat_ should be raised to one-thirtieth of the value of gold, then to make _mandats_ legal tender and to substitute them for _assignats_ at the rate of one for thirty. Never were great expectations more cruelly disappointed. Even before the _mandats_ could be issued from the press they fell to thirty-five per cent of their nominal value; from this they speedily fell to fifteen, and soon after to five per cent, and finally, in August, 1796, six months from their first issue, to three per cent. This plan failed--just as it failed in New England in 1737; just as it failed under our own Confederation in 1781; just as it failed under the Southern Confederacy during our Civil War. [72]