there is
a lack of cash. Communities are ruined by the enormous outlays to which
they are exposed: The payment of the deputies to the seneschal's court,
the establishment of the burgess guards, guardhouses for this militia,
and the purchase of arms, uniforms, and outlays in forming communes and
permanent councils. To this must be add the cost of the printing of all
kinds, and the publication of trivial deliberations. Further the loss
of time due to disturbances occasioned by these circumstances, and
the utter stagnation of manufactures and of trade." All these causes
combined "have reduced Languedoc to the last extremity."--In the Center,
and in the North, where the crops are good, provisions are not less
scarce, because wheat is not put in circulation, and is kept concealed.

"For five months," writes the municipal assembly of Louviers,[1310] "not
a farmer has made his appearance in the markets of this town. Such a
circumstance was never known before, although, from time to time, high
prices have prevailed to a considerable extent. On the contrary, the
markets were always well supplied in proportion to the high price of
grain."

In vain the municipality orders the surrounding forty-seven parishes to
provide them with wheat. They pay no attention to the mandate; each for
himself and each for his own house; the intendant is no longer present
to compel local interests to give way to public interests.

"In the wheat districts around us," says a letter from one of the
Burgundy towns, "we cannot rely on being able to make free purchases.
Special regulations, supported by the civic guard, prevent grain from
being sent out, and put a stop to its circulation. The adjacent markets
are of no use to us. Not a sack of grain has been brought into our
market for about eight months."

At Troyes, bread costs four sous per pound, at Bar-sur-Aube, and in the
vicinity, four and a half sous per pound. The artisan who is out of work
now earns twelve sous a day at the relief works, and, on going into the
country, he sees that the grain crop is good. What conclusion can he
come to but that the dearth is due to the monopolists, and that, if he
should die of hunger, it would be because those scoundrels have
starved him?--By virtue of this reasoning whoever has to do with these
provisions, whether proprietor, farmer, merchant or administrator, all
are considered traitors. It is plain that there is a plot against
the people: the government,