ted on coffee and rice and sugar; at last they seized everything
on which they could lay their hands--cloth, clothing, groceries and
luxuries of every kind. Two hundred such places were plundered. This was
endured for six hours and finally order was restored only by a grant of
seven million _francs_ to buy off the mob. The new political economy was
beginning to bear, its fruits luxuriantly. A gaudy growth of it appeared
at the City Hall of Paris when, in response to the complaints of the
plundered merchants, Roux declared, in the midst of great applause, that
"shopkeepers were only giving back to the people what they had hitherto
robbed them of."

The mob having thus been bought off by concessions and appeased by
oratory, the government gained time to think, and now came a series of
amazing expedients,--and yet all perfectly logical.

Three of these have gained in French history an evil pre-eminence, and
first of the three was the Forced Loan.

In view of the fact that the well-to-do citizens were thought to be
lukewarm in their support of the politicians controlling the country,
various demagogues in the National Convention, which had now succeeded
the National, Constituent and Legislative Assemblies, found ample matter
for denunciations long and loud. The result outside the Convention
was increased activity of the guillotine; the results inside were new
measures against all who had money, and on June 22, 1793, the
Convention determined that there should be a Forced Loan, secured on the
confiscated lands of the emigrants and levied upon all married men
with incomes of ten thousand _francs_, and upon all unmarried men with
incomes of six thousand _francs_. It was calculated that these
would bring into the treasury a thousand millions of _francs_. But a
difficulty was found. So many of the rich had lied or had concealed
their wealth that only a fifth of the sum required could be raised, and
therefore a law was soon passed which levied forced loans upon incomes
as low as one thousand, _francs_,--or, say, two hundred dollars
of American money. This tax was made progressive. On the smaller
proprietors it was fixed at one-tenth and on the larger, that is, on all
incomes above nine thousand _francs_, it was made one-half of the entire
income. Little if any provision was made for the repayment of this loan
but the certificates might be used for purchasing the confiscated real
estate of the church and of the nobility. [46]