By the side of the two committees of Government, the Committee of Finance occupied an important and, to some extent, an independent position. The Committee of Public Safety possessed no member prepared to undertake the direction of the finances, and it was therefore obliged to leave the initiative to others. The deputy Cambon, who sat on the confines of the Mountain, practically occupied the position of Minister of Finance; and several laws introduced by him were adopted, designed to restore equilibrium between expenditure and revenue, and to prevent increase in the number of assignats in circulation. The State possessed a large number of creditors, some lenders before the revolution, others since; whilst to others compensation was due for abolished offices. All these creditors were put on the same footing. Capital, if due to them, was made irrecoverable, and in all cases five per cent. interest given. The old titles were destroyed and the new entered in a common book, called the Great Book of the Public Debt. The State gained by the operation, more especially in the case of loans contracted before the revolution, often on very onerous terms. A new source of revenue was sought in the imposition of a forced loan, according to the law passed in the spring. The lenders were to be repaid in confiscated lands. This loan was expected to bring in the large sum of 43,750,000_l._, and assignats to that amount were to be withdrawn from circulation. Efforts to restore the finances were, however, as fruitless as efforts to advance education. While millions were being squandered in the departments, taxes imposed by the Convention remained unpaid. The forced loan never brought in more than eight millions. Cambon vainly reiterated complaints that but little of the sums irregularly raised in the departments ever reached the treasury. So long as the Commune exercised power, it was impossible for the Convention to take any effectual steps for the enforcement of its decrees.