ld all
these people would cost me at most five hundred thousand francs.[31] I
shall then have invested my money at five per cent at the least, and with
perfect security, since the wages is a guarantee for the payment of the
rent.'"

"Ah, M. Agricola! I begin to understand how it may sometimes be
advantageous to do good, even in a pecuniary sense."

"And I am almost certain, mademoiselle, that, in the long run, affairs
conducted with uprightness and honesty turn out well. But to return to
our speculator. 'Here,' will he say, 'are my workmen, living close to my
factory, well lodged, well warmed, and arriving always fresh at their
work. That is not all; the English workman who eats good beef, and drinks
good beer, does twice as much, in the same time, as the French workman,[32]
reduced to a detestable kind of food, rather weakening than the reverse,
thanks to the poisonous adulteration of the articles he consumes. My
workmen will then labor much better, if they eat much better. How shall I
manage it without loss? Now I think of it, what is the food in barracks,
schools, even prisons? Is it not the union of individual resources which
procures an amount of comfort impossible to realize without such an
association? Now, if my two hundred and sixty workmen, instead of cooking
two hundred and sixty detestable dinners, were to unite to prepare one
good dinner for all of them, which might be done, thanks to the savings
of all sorts that would ensue, what an advantage for me and them! Two or
three women, aided by children, would suffice to make ready the daily
repasts; instead of buying wood and charcoal in fractions,[33] and so
paying for it double its value, the association of my workmen would, upon
my security (their wages would be an efficient security for me in
return), lay in their own stock of wood, flour, butter, oil, wine, etc.,
all which they would procure directly from the producers. Thus, they
would pay three or four sous for a bottle of pure wholesome wine, instead
of paying twelve or fifteen sous for poison. Every week the association
would buy a whole ox, and some sheep, and the women would make bread, as
in the country. Finally, with these resources, and order, and economy, my
workmen may have wholesome, agreeable, and sufficient food, for from
twenty to twenty-five sous a day.'"

"Ah! this explains it, M. Agricola."

"It is not all, mademoiselle. Our cool-headed speculator would continue:
'Here are my workmen