Even at the old rate, these would still be too
dear for the innumerable empty or half-empty purses, after so many
attacks on property, industry and trade, now that so many hundreds of
workmen and employees are out of work, now that so many land-owners
and bourgeois receive no rents, now that incomes, profits, wages and
salaries have diminished by hundreds of thousands. But wheat, and,
consequently, bread, has not remained at old rates. Formerly a sack
of wheat in Paris was worth 50 francs. In February, 1793, it is worth
sixty-five francs; in May, 1793, one hundred francs and then one
hundred and fifty; and hence bread, in Paris, early in 1793, instead
of being three sous the pound, costs six sous, in many of the southern
departments seven and eight sous, and in other places ten and twelve
sous.[21] The reason is, that, since August 10, 1792, after the King's
fall and the wrenching away of the ancient keystone of the arch which
still kept the loosened stones of the social edifice in place, the
frightened peasant would no longer part with his produce; he
determined not to take assignats, not to let his grain go for anything
but ringing coin. To exchange good wheat for bad, dirty paper rags
seemed to him a trick, and justly so, for, on going to town every
month he found that the dealers gave him less merchandise for these
rags.
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