Being distrustful and a hoarder, he must have good, old
fashioned crowns, with the ancient effigy, so as to lay them away in a
jar or old woollen stocking; give him specie or he will keep his
grain. For he is not, as formerly, obliged to part with it as soon as
it is cut, to pay taxes and rent; the bailiff and sheriff are no
longer there to constrain him; in these times of disorder and
demagoguism, under impotent or partial authorities, neither the public
nor the private creditor has the power to compel payment, while the
spurs which formerly impelled the farmer to seek the nearest market
are blunted or broken. He therefore stays away, and he has excellent
reasons for so doing. Vagabonds and the needy stand by the roadside
and at the entrances of the towns to stop and pillage the loaded
carts; in the markets and on the open square, women cut open bags of
grain with their scissors and empty them, or the municipality, forced
to do it by the crowd, fixes the price at a reduced rate.[22] - The
larger a town, the greater the difficulty in supplying its market; for
its provisions are drawn from a distance; each department, each
canton, each village keeps its own grain for itself by means of legal
requisitions or by brutal force; it is impossible for wholesale
dealers in grain to make bargains; they are styled monopolists, and
the mob, breaking into their storehouses, hangs them out of
preference.
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