of grain. It not only bought up the whole which was to be
obtained in the country, but provided for the public wants _by large
importation_. Regulations for the import and export of grain were made
by it; sometimes, it was said, through the influence of those who
solicited exemptions. Whether this was the case or not is uncertain, and
not very material. What is certain is, that the rule by which the
chamber was invariably regulated, viz. _that of consulting no other
interest but that of the poor consumer_, is as vicious and ruinous as
the one so much approved of now-a-days, of attending only to the
interest of the proprietors and producers. Government, doubtless, should
attend to the vital matter of the subsistence of the people; but it
should do so with a view to the interest of all, not a single section of
society.

"At what price soever bread was bought by them, the _Casa Annonaria_
sold it to the bakers at seven Roman crowns (30 f.) the _rubbio_, which
weighs 640 kilograms, (1540 lbs.) That price was not much different from
the average one; and the apostolic chamber sustained no great loss till
1763, by its extensive operations in the purchase and sale of grain. But
at that period the price of wheat began to rise, and it went on
continually advancing to the end of the century. Notwithstanding its
annual losses, however, the apostolic chamber was too much afraid of
public clamour to raise the price of bread. It went on constantly
retailing it at the same price to the people; and the consequence was,
that its losses in 1797, when the pontifical government was overturned,
had accumulated to no less than 17,457,485 francs, or L685,000."[40]

It might naturally have been imagined, that after so long an experience
of the effects of a forcible reduction of the price of grain below the
level at which it could be raised at a profit by home cultivators, the
ecclesiastical government would have seen what was the root of the evil,
and applied themselves to remedy it, by giving some protection to native
industry. But though the evil of the desolation of the Campagna was felt
in its full extent by government in subsequent times; yet as the first
step in the right course, viz. protecting native industry by stopping
the sales of bread by government at lower prices than it could be raised
at home, was likely to occasion great discontent, it was never
attempted. Such a step, dangerous in the firmest and best established,
was imposs