Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/181

ASSETS. come to his hands, by the payment of dobts in due ordtT, lie be afterwards sued by a creditor rcmaininj; unpaid, he is entitled to protect him- self by au allegation that he has fnlly adminis- tered, or, technically, by a plea of plcnf adminis- travit ; and upon this plea the creditor is enti- tled to judgment that he shall be paid out of any other assets that shall come to the defendants, which is called a judgment of assets in futuro. Assets is not a technical term in Scotland, but it is nevertheless nnieh used in the legal business of that country. Consult the authoritries referred to under Auministkation; Bankruptcy; Distbi- ni'TiON : I^.soI.VE.•cy.

AS'SIDE'ANS. See Chasidim.

ASSIENTO, a-syan't6 (Sp. asiento, seat, con- tract, treaty). A word specially applied to a compact between S])ain and some foreign nation, according to which the Spanish Government con- ferred upon the latter, under certain conditions, the monopol.v of the supply of negroes for its American colonies. It was Charles I. of Spain who first concluded an assiento with the Flem- ings, in 1517. ICext, a similar compact was en- tered into with the Genoese (1580), the Por- tuguese ( IG'JG), and on the accession of Pliilip V. to the Spanish throne, in 1702, with the French Guinea Company, which from that time took the name of the Assiento Company, upon the understanding that for ten years it should have the exclusive right of annually importing 4800 negroes into the continent and islands of Spanish America. The assiento was next transferred to England at the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, and made over by Government to the South Sea Com- pany for thirty years, permission being also granted to the company to send yearly, during the term of contract, a ship, carrying 500 tons of goods, to these Spanish colonies. The mis- understanding that grew out of this last clause, of which England took advantage to carry on an extensive contraband trade, contributed not a little to the war that broke out between the two nations in 17.39. By the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle the South Sea Company was confirmed in its title to the assiento for a period of four years, but this right was surrendered in the treaty of Madrid, October 5, 1750.

ASSIER, a'.sya', Adolphe d' (1828—). A French traveler and philologist, born at Labaa- tide de Seron. He became professor of mathe- matics and member of the Academy of Sciences at Bordeaux, and made numerous voyages abroad, results of which are embodied in the works; Le Bresil conteinporain, races, mcrnrs, institutions, paysages (1867) ; and Houvenirs des Piinhircs (1872: 3d ed.. 1885). He has also pub- lished various other important works, of which the following are devoted to philology: Essai do grammnirc qencrale, d'aprrs l<t compnrniKon dcs principalis lanfiiwsiindo-europ<^en.nes (1857) ; Jlistoire niiturcllf dii lanf/nge ; physiologic du hingnge phonHiijue (1807) ; Ic langage grnphiqiie (1868).

AS'SIGNA'TION. A legal term in Scotch conveyancing, analogous in meaning to the English word 'assignment' and 'conveyance,' signifying the process by which the holder of any right, 01' the creditor in any obligation, or the proprietor of any property not strictly feudal, transfers his right or estate to a third party. See Assignment.

ASSIGNATIONS (Lat. nd, to + signare, to sign: cf. assignatsj . The paper currency of Russia, issued by Catherine II., about 1770, to assist in carrying on the war against Turkey. Like similar experiments in other countries, be- fore and afterwards, the assignations started at par, but rapidly declined to less than 25 per cent. About twenty years later, the assignations were the general currency ; but traders began to refuse them, and the most stringent edicts of Paul failed to force them into good standing. In the war with Napoleon, heavy issues were made, the value keeping steadily at about 4 rubles of paper to 1 of silver. The rate rose somewhat after the peace, and fluctuation became so trou- blesome that the Government fixed the value by special law. In 1839, the silver ruble was made the unit, and the value of assignations fixed at 'i<2 for 1 of silver. At the same time bills of credit were issued which took the place of the assignations. ASSIGNATS, a'se'nya' or as'ig-nats (Fr. as- sigiiat, from Lat. pp. assignatus, assigned, from ad, to + signare, to sign). Paper money issued during the French Revolution, w^hich derived its name from the public domain assigned for its ultimate redemption. One of the earliest acts of the Revolutionary authorities was the confis- cation of lands belonging to the Crown and the Church, to which later the estates of the (Emi- gres were added. These lands were to be used as a source of income for the State, but the proc- ess of selling was too slow to meet the pressing needs of the treasury. The Government there- fore issued what were practically treasury notes (q.v.), bearing interest at 5 per cent., for the total amount of 400,000,000 livres (francs). They were to be retired within five years from the ])roceeds of the sales of the national lands which were assigned to this purpose. When first issued, the notes were sold in the market in the same way as treasury notes in our own history. They were in fact securities, the lowest denomination being of 200 livres ($40), and on the first issue, in December, 1789, were well received and suffered no depreciation. By a decree of April, 1790, these notes acquired a legal tender character, and the interest upon them was reduced to 3 per cent. The payment of interest, however, is not compatible with the legal tender quality of notes, and in October, 1790, it was sujipressed, after the maximum issue had been increased in the preceding month to 1,200,000,000 francs. After this date, the successive issues of this paper money became more and more rapid. As early as 1791 notes of 5 francs appeared: and later, notes of 10 sous (one-half franc) were is- sued. So rapid was the issue of notes that the record of their amount is lost; the formality of passing laws was omitted, and the executive authorities increased the issues by simple de- crees. By the year 1793 the circulation had reached nearly 4,000.000,000 francs, but the actual value of the notes had sunk to one- fifth their nominal value. Futile efl'orts were made to .sustain the value of the notes. An ef- fort, late in 1793, to fund them, and thus restrict their quantity, proved ineffective, while penal provisions, culminating in a decree of Septem- ber 23, 1793, punishing the refusal to take them in payment, or taking them at a discount, with death and confiscation of property, were equally