He turns all into cash, no matter how, at the expense of the domain,
which he leaves in a run-down condition, unfurnished and for a long
time unproductive. In like manner, the communal possessions, ravaged,
pillaged and then pieced out and divided off, are so many organisms
which are sacrificed for the immediate relief of the village poor, but
of course to the detriment of their future productiveness and an
abundant yield.[18]
Alone, amongst these millions of men who have stopped working, or work
the wrong way, the petty cultivator labors to advantage; free of
taxes, of tithes and of feudal imposts, possessing a scrap of ground
which he has obtained for almost nothing or without stretching his
purse strings, he works in good spirits.[19] He is sure that
henceforth his crop will no longer be eaten up by the levies of the
seignior, of the d?cimateur and of the King, that it will belong to
him, that it will be wholly his, and that the worse the famine in the
towns, the dearer he will sell his produce. Hence, he has ploughed
more vigorously than ever; he has even cleared waste ground; getting
the soil gratis, or nearly so, and having to make but few advances,
having no other use for his advances, consisting of seed, manure, the
work of his cattle and of his own hands, he has planted, reaped and
raised grain with the greatest energy.
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