1000 Livres

The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued paper currency for the French Caribbean colonies — principally Saint-Domingue, Martinique, and Guadeloupe — under chronic coin shortages that had plagued the islands for most of the eighteenth century. By 1790, the timing was precarious: the French Revolution was already reshaping metropolitan authority, and colonial administrations were issuing paper against increasingly uncertain backing.

A 1,000 Livres denomination was a substantial figure in colonial circulation, beyond the reach of ordinary transactions. Notes at this level moved between merchants, planters, and administrators — not across market stalls. Saint-Domingue was already showing the early tremors of what would become the Haitian Revolution the following year.