30 ASSEN ASSIGNATIONS Universal (Rome, 1749), and He Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaorum Nestorianorum (Rome, 1775). IV. Simon, a distant relative of the preceding, born at Tripoli, Feb. 20, 1752, died in Padua, April 8, 1821. In 1785 he was appointed professor of oriental languages at Padua, and acquired fame as a student of oriental numismatics, on which subject he published his Museo cufico Naniano illustrate (Padua, 1787-'8), and other works. ASSEN, a town of the Netherlands, capital of the province of Drenthe, 14 m. S. of Gronin- gen, on the Horn-Diep, which is connected by means of a canal with the Zuyder-Zee ; pop. in 1867, 6,443. Near the town are celebrated giants' graves. ASSKU, or Asstrlns Menevensls, a monk of St. David's or Menevia, in Wales, died about 910. At the request of Alfred the Great he left his monastery for a part of each year to visit the court, where he read Latin with the king asd corrected his translations. Alfred gave him many ecclesiastical preferments. Some au- thorities say he became bishop of Sherborne. Asser's great work is his "Life of Alfred," in Latin. The earliest edition is that of Arch- bishop Parker, at the end of Walsingham's " History " (1574). The best edition is that of Wise (Oxford, 1722), entitled Annales Rerum Gestarum jElfredi Magni. This is our chief authority for the events of Alfred's public and private life from his birth to 889, and conveys much incidental intelligence about the laws, manners, and general civilization of Wessex. Thomas Wright, in the Biographia Britannica Literaria, maintains that this life was written at a later date, and Asser's name affixed to it. ASSIENTO (Sp. asiento, treaty), a term used to designate the treaties made by Spain with foreign countries for the supply of negro slaves to her South American provinces. The Span- ish government, having no settlements on the African coast, encouraged adventurers to sup- ply slaves by securing to them a monopoly of the trade, with other commercial privileges. The Flemish merchants received the contract from Charles V. ; Philip II. gave it to the Genoese, under whose title the traffic was chiefly carried on by British traders ; and Philip V. to a French company. The terms of this last assiento were the privilege of sending a ship of 500 tons with merchandise free of duty to Spanish America, and the payment of a sum on each imported negro, the minimum number of slaves being fixed at 4,800 annually. This contract was transferred by the same king to the South sea company, but abrogated shortly after at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. It never gave satisfaction to Spain ; and the contrac- tors always lost money, their local factors and agents reaping the profits. ASSIGNATS, the paper currency of the French revolution, first issued in the spring of 1790, to be redeemed by the sale of the confiscated property of the clergy and the emigrants. The assignats kept their value above 90 per cent. till 1792, but from that time they began to droop. The original issue of 1,200,000,000 francs was increased to 45,578,000,000, besides which there were in circulation a great num- ber of counterfeit notes manufactured abroad. Great efforts were made to prop the market, and stringent laws were enacted to fix prices and force the people to accept the notes at their nominal value ; but they soon fell to 60 per cent., and in 1795 were worth only 18 per cent. In 1796 they were redeemed at ^ of their face in mandate, entitling the holder to enter at once upon possession of the public lands at an estimated price. The mandats soon fell to -fa of their nominal value, and in July, 1796, a law was passed authorizing the circulation of mandats at their current value, which resulted in the speedy disappearance of the notes. ASSIGNATIONS, Russian paper money, intro- duced early in the reign of Catharine II., about the year 1770, principally to carry on the wars against the Turks. The standard currency was then as now the silver ruble, and the paper assignations on the banks likewise founded by Catharine were to represent in full the standard silver coin. But they soon fell until the assignation ruble was worth only one half, one third, and finally one fourth of the original value ; and thus it became necessary to specify the nature of the ruble in all transactions. From 1787 the use of assignations as currency was general. In the reign of Paul I. the mer- chants of St. Petersburg, foreign and domestic, refused to receive assignations at the govern- ment standard in payment. Stringent ukases for facilitating the circulation of assignations all over the empire proved unsuccessful, and at the death of Paul (1801), and during the greater part of the reign of Alexander I., the assig- nation ruble was generally worth one fourth of the silver. During the wars against Napo- leon the issue of assignations increased exces- sively, but no considerable additional deprecia- tion took place. With peace the assignations rose, and finally the government fixed the standard at 3 rubles 60 copecks, either of cop- per or assignations, for a silver ruble, one as- signation ruble equalling 100 copecks copper, and four copecks copper making one of silver. On account of the facility of carrying large
