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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

[26] Naturally, for lack of bread,
people fall back on other aliments, which also grow dearer; add to
this the various contrivances and effects of Jacobin politics which
still further increase the dearness of food of all sorts, and also of
every other necessary article: for instance, the extremely bad
condition of the roads, which renders transportation slower and more
costly; the prohibition of the export of coin and hence the obtaining
of food from abroad; the decree which obliges each industrial or
commercial association, at present or to come, to " pay annually into
the national treasury one-quarter of the amount of its dividends;" the
revolt in Vend?e, which deprives Paris of six hundred oxen a week; the
feeding of the armies, which takes one-half of the cattle brought to
the Poissy market; shutting off the sea and the continent, which ruins
manufacturers and extensive commercial operations; the insurrections
in Bordeaux, Marseilles and the South, which still further raise the
price of groceries, sugar, soap, oil, candles, wine and brandy.[27] -
Early in 1793, a pound of beef in France is worth on the average,
instead of six sous twenty sous; in May, at Paris, brandy which, six
months before, cost thirty-five sous, costs ninety-four sous; in July,
a pound of veal, instead of five sous, costs twenty-two sous.


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