Jacques Solomon

Jacques Solomon, a French physicist and socialist who was executed by the Nazis during World War II, praises the economic policies of Maximilien Robespierre and the rest of the Jacobin leadership in the following viewpoint. Solomon asserts that these radical revolutionaries saved France from the dangers posed by foreign invaders and counterrevolutionaries while also stabilizing the French currency. According to Solomon, the Jacobins compelled France’s wealthy subjects to contribute money to support the revolution and the disadvantaged. He also contends that the new government greatly benefited France by stabilizing the paper currency, assignats, by reducing the circulation of money, establishing an official exchange rate, and setting maximum prices that made bread and other provisions affordable without completely eliminating commercial profits.

[Maximilien] Robespierre and his friends succeeded in saving France from counter-revolutionary...