Perhaps other articles of
consumption will be scarce; it may be that, owing to the ruin of other
branches of industry, it will be hard to get dry-goods, shoes, sugar,
soap, oil, candles, wine and brandy; it may happen that, owing to the
bungling way in which agricultural transformations have been effected,
all produce of the secondary order, meat, vegetables, butter and eggs,
may become scarce. In any event, French foodstuffs par excellence is
on hand, standing in the field or stored in sheaves in the barns; in
1792 and 1793, and even in 1794, there is enough grain in France to
provide every French inhabitant with his daily bread.[20]
But that is not enough. In order that each Frenchman may obtain his
bit of bread every day, it is still essential that grain should reach
the markets in sufficient quantities, and that the bakers should every
day have enough flour to make all the bread that is required;
moreover, the bread offered for sale in the bakeries should not exceed
the price which the majority of consumers can afford to pay. Now, in
fact, through a forced result of the new system, neither of these
conditions is fulfilled. - In the first place, wheat, and hence
bread, is too dear.
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