New legislation paid an indemnity to royalists whose lands had been confiscated during the Revolution. Although this law had been engineered by Louis, Charles was influential in seeing that it was passed. A bill to finance this compensation, by converting government debt (the "rente") from 5% to 3% bonds, which would save the state 30 million francs a year in interest payments, was also put before the chambers. Villèle's government argued that "rentiers" had seen their returns grow disproportionately to their original investment, and that the redistribution was just. The final law allocated state funds of 988 million francs for compensation ("le milliard des émigrés"), financed by government bonds at a value of 600 million francs at 3% interest. Around 18 million francs were paid per year. Unexpected beneficiaries of the law were some one million owners of "biens nationaux", the old confiscated lands, whose property rights were now confirmed by the new law, leading to a sharp rise in its value.