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The livre (abbreviation: £ or ₶., [1] French for libra (pound)) was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor states of Francia and West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of coins and of units of account.
The franc (/ f r æ ŋ k /; French: franc français, [fʁɑ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛ]; sign: F or Fr), [n 2] also commonly distinguished as the French franc (FF), was a currency of France.Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money.
The livre was the currency of New France, the French colony in modern-day Canada. It was subdivided into 20 sols , each of 12 deniers . The New France livre was a French colonial currency, distinguished by the use of paper money.
The livre was the currency of various French colonies until the early 19th century. It was subdivided into 20 sous, each of 12 deniers.It was mostly issued in paper money form and was generally linked to the French livre at the rate of 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 colonial livres = 1 French livre.
In France, the livre tournois and the currency system based on it became a standard monetary unit of accounting and continued to be used even when the livre tournois ceased to exist as an actual coin. For example, the Louisiana Purchase treaty of 1803 specified the relative ratios of the franc, dollar and livre tournois.
In 1795, the livre was officially replaced by the franc and the sou became obsolete as an official currency division. Nevertheless, the term " sou " survived as a slang term for 1 ⁄ 20 of a franc. Thus, the large bronze 5-centime coin was called " sou " (for example in Balzac or Victor Hugo ), the " pièce de cent sous " ("hundred sous coin ...
Assignat from the 1792 issue: 400 livres. Assignats were paper money (fiat currency) authorized by the Constituent Assembly in France from 1789 to 1796, during the French Revolution, to address imminent bankruptcy.
A twelve-livre card from Canada, New France, c. 1735The growth of French colonization, which began about the middle of the seventeenth century, was accompanied by continual difficulty in finding sufficient currency for the needs of settlers, merchants and government establishments.