" Whoever keeps on hand more than he
consumes is a monopolist and commits a capital crime; the penalty,
very severe, is imprisonment or the pillory, for whoever sells above
the established price:[39] such are the simple and direct expedients
of the revolutionary government, and such is the character of its
inventive faculty, like that of the savage who hews down a tree to get
at its fruit. - Consequently, after the first application of the
"maximum" the shopkeeper is no longer able to carry on business; his
customers, attracted by the sudden depreciation in price of his wares,
flock to his shop and empty it in a few days;[40] having sold his
goods for half what they cost him,[41] he has got back only one-half
of his advances; therefore, he can only one-half renew his assortment,
less than a half, since he has not paid his bills, and his credit is
declining, the (Jacobin) representatives on mission having taken all
his coin, plate and assignats. Hence, during the following month,
buyers find on his unfurnished counters nothing but rubbish and
refuse.
In like manner, after the proclamation of the maximum,[42] the peasant
refuses to bring his produce to market, while the revolutionary army
is not everywhere on hand to take it from him by force: he leaves his
crop unthrashed as long as he can, and complains of not finding the
men to thrash it.
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