King LOUIS XIV
The Great:
 14.5.1643 - 1.9.1715

As other sovereigns had done before him, Louis XIV used monetary manipulation as an answer to the financial needs of the Crown. In September 1701 he experimented with the issue of France first banknotes.

These banknotes paid interest and circulated and could be redeemed in coin of the realm.

They circulated for about ten years, without great acceptance of the public, as they had a poor record of public exchange at the end of the term.

By 1711 they were discontinued. In 1715, “banknotes of State” were begun.