Desperate measures were taken to restore the treasury’s finances as they were in a desperate state. At least it can be said that complete financial collapse was avoided, but only just. Loot from abroad was helpful but the collapse in the value of the assignat was disastrous. A new currency was introduced but that too soon became worthless. Coins became the sole legal tender but there were not enough of them in circulation. Those who owned government investments (rentes). New taxes were introduced and commissars (working directly for the directory) were put in charge of tax collection. Bourgeois investors and property-owners suffered accordingly. Those who had gained by the Revolution were now loosing out.
The term Thermidoreans refers to those who brought about Robespierre`s fall and took control thereafter. They were chiefly from the “plain” although many Girondins joined with them. They aimed to revert to the Revolutionary principles exposed in 1789. They sought a “moderate” route, as they were not monarchists (they had voted for the king’s execution) but they wanted to control the sans-culottes and limit their influence by ending the terror. The Thermidoreans drew up a constitution to limit the power of the sans-culottes and provide protection for property. The convention agreed to the changes before its abolition and the formation of the Directory.
Gracchus Babeuf attempted to set up a Conspiracy of Equals. This was a rising by a small group of well-disciplined revolutionaries against the wealthy on behalf of the people. He went to the guillotine in 1797.
More serious were the two occasions when the Directors themselves used the army to deal with what they thought were threats from the left and the right.
In 1797, apathy with the war and the Directory resulted in the election of large numbers of monarchists to the councils. Such was their advance that by 1798, the royalists might have a majority. Hence two Republican Directors used troops under the command of Napoleon in September 1797 to round up directors and deputies suspected of being sympathetic to the royalist cause. Election results were quashed and the Directors Carnot and Barthelemy were exiled. Émigrés were forced to leave and hundreds of refractory priests were deported.
The troubles of May 1798 show how little the Directory now commanded respect. This time the Jacobins won about one third of all seats – not enough for a serious threat, but again the Directors overturned their election. The fact that the government found it difficult to ensure the re-election of its candidates indicates the public mood.
By the time of the Directory, the Batavian Republic had been set up. This consisted of Belgium and the United Provinces. In 1795 Prussia made peace with France so she could pay some attention to the partition of Poland. Spain also made peace with France and then became allies in 1796. Austria was to be defeated by two advancing French armies, one across Bavaria and the other one under Napoleon would march across the Alps into Italy and then onto Vienna. Napoleon’s campaign was brilliant and he defeated the Austrians, taking Milan and Mantua in the process. When the Austrians pushed the army of the Rhine back, Napoleon ignored the orders of the Directory and concluded the Treaty of Campo Formio in October 1797.
The Second Coalition brought renewed warfare against Austria and Russia. After initially taking all of Italy, Frances armies were driven out of Switzerland and Italy and back to the Rhine. Arguments between Austria and Russia saved France.
The directory failed, as it was able to restore stability back to France. Its main problems were war, debt, inflation, lack of order but most of all the problems that had been left behind by the Terror.
