mandat territorial) were paper bank notes issued as currency by the French Directory in 1796 to replace the assignats which had become virtually worthless.
The Directory attempted to intervene by decree on 23 and 24 December by limiting the total issue of assignats to 40 billion livres.
Unlike the assignat land auctions, the mandats could be exchanged for property with a set price of 22 times the rental rate value in 1790.
While the mandats were legally given value equal to that of metallic currency, the government structure of the Directory lacked means and desire to force its use.
Unlike the auctions used for properties sold in assignats that capitalized on competitive bidding, the mandats were intended to bring stability to the market and subsequently to itself.
The legal wording for both currencies however, was similar and offered little guarantee of stability for French citizens who had reason to distrust paper money.
The new currency did little to solve the economic problems and workers were angered that new enforcement measures were not put in place to prevent discrimination between mandats and coin.
[5] Those who had large quantities of assignats and chose to convert them early on were able to use them to access cheap lands from the biens nationaux.
[6] The viability of the mandats and paper currency in general were further diminished by a law passed on Thermidor 5 IV that allowed contracts to be negotiated in whatever units individuals preferred.