"
But "most of these articles remain piled up in the storehouses, part
of them rotten, or eaten by rats, the rest being abandoned to the
first-comer. . . . The end of spoliation was attained." - Utter
loss to individuals and no gain, or the minimum of a gain, to the
State. Such is the net result of the revolutionary government. After
having laid its hand on three-fifths of the landed property of France;
after having wrested from communities and individuals from ten to
twelve billions of real and personal estate; after having increased,
through assignats and territorial warrants, the public debt, which was
not five billions in 1789, to more than fifty billions;[46] no longer
able to pay its employees; reduced to supporting its armies as well as
itself by forced contributions on conquered territories, it ends in
bankruptcy; it repudiates two-thirds of its debt, and its credit is so
low that the remaining third which it has consolidated and guaranteed
afresh, loses eighty-three per cent. the very next day. In its
hands, the State has itself suffered as much as the private
individuals. - Of the latter, more than 1 200 000 have suffered
physically: several millions, all who owned anything, great or small,
have suffered through their property.
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