第803章

If I want to dig a hole I am obliged to hire a pick and the arms to wield it, or, in other terms, to make certain advances. But these advances are made only on two conditions: first, that he who makes them is able to make them, that is to say, that he is the possessor of an available surplus; and next, being the owner of this surplus, that he desires to make them, with this proviso that he may gain instead of losing by the operation. - If I am wholly or partially ruined, if my tenants and farmers do not pay their rent,[2] if my lands or goods do not bring half their value in the market, if the net proceeds of my possessions are threatened with confiscation or pillage, not only have I fewer securities to dispose of, but, again, I become more and more uneasy about the future; over and above my immediate consumption Ihave to provide for a prospective consumption; I add to my reserve stores especially of coin and provisions; I hold on to the remnant of my securities for myself and those who belong to me; they are no longer available and I can no longer make loans or enter upon my enterprise. And, on the other hand, if the loan or enterprise, instead of bringing me a profit, brings me loss; if the law is powerless or fails to do me justice and adds extra to ordinary risks;if my work once perfected is to become the prey of the government, of brigands or of whoever pleases to seize it; if I am compelled to surrender my wares and merchandise at one-half their cost; if I cannot produce, put in store, transport or sell except by renouncing all profit and with the certainty of not getting back my advances, I will no longer make loans or enter upon any under-taking whatever.

Such is the disposition and situation of people able to make advances in anarchical times, when the State falters and no longer performs its customary service, when property is no longer adequately protected by the public force, when jacqueries overspread the country and insurrections break out in the towns, when chateaux are sacked, archives burnt, shops broken into, provisions carried off and transportation is brought to a halt, when rents and leases are no longer paid, when the courts dare no longer convict, when the constable no longer dares serve a warrant, when the gendarmerie holds back, when the police fails to act, when repeated amnesties shield robbers and incendiaries, when a revolution brings into local and central power dishonest and impoverished adventurers hostile to every one that possesses property of any kind. - Such is the disposition and situation of all who are in possession of the means to initiate projects in socialistic times* when the usurping State, instead of protecting private property, destroys or seizes it;* when it takes for itself the property of many of the great corporations;* when it suppresses legally established credits without indemnity;* when, by dint of expenditure and the burdens this creates, it becomes insolvent;* when, through its paper-money and forced circulation, it annuls indebtedness in the hands of the creditor, and allows the debtor to go scot-free;* when it arbitrarily seizes current capital;* when it makes forced loans and requisitions;* when its tax on productions surpasses the cost of production and on merchandise the profit on its sale;* when it constrains the manufacturer to manufacture at a loss and the merchant to sell at a loss;* when its principles, judged by its acts, indicate a progression from partial to a universal confiscation. -Ineluctably every phase of disease engenders the evil which follows:

it is like a poison the effects of which spread or pass onwards. Each function, affected by the derangement of the adjacent one, becoming disturbed in its turn. The perils, mutilation and suppression of property diminish available securities as well as the courage that risks them, that is to say, the mode of, and disposition to, make advances. Through a lack of funds, useful enterprises languish, die out or are not undertaken. Consequently, the production, supply, and sale of indispensable articles slacken, become interrupted and cease altogether. There is less soap and sugar and fewer candles at the grocery, less wood and coal in the wood-yard, fewer oxen and sheep in the markets, less meat at the butcher's, less grain and flour at the corn-exchange, and less bread at the bakeries. As articles of prime necessity are scarce they become dear; as people contend for them their dearness increases; the rich man ruins himself in the struggle to get hold of them, while the poor man never gets any, and the bare necessities become unattainable.

II. Conditions in 1793. A Lesson in Market Economics.

Economical effect of the Jacobin policy from 1789 to 1793. - Attacks on property. - Direct attacks. - Jacqueries, effective confiscations and proclamation of the socialist creed. - Indirect attacks. - Bad administration of the public funds. - Transformation of taxation and insignificance of the returns. - Increased expenditures. - The War-budget and subsistence after 1793. - Paper money. - Enormous issues of it. - Credit of the Assignats run down. - Ruin of Public creditors and of all private credit. - Rate of interest during the Revolution. - Stoppage of trade and industry. - Bad management of new land-owners. - Decrease of productive labor. - Only the small rural land-owner works advantageously. - Why he refuses Assignats. -He is no longer obliged to sell his produce at once. - High cost of food. - It reaches a market with difficulty and in small quantities.

- The towns buy at a high price and sell at a low one. - Food becomes dearer and famine begins. - Prices during the first six months of 1793.

Such is the hardship in France at the moment when the Jacobin conquest has been completed, a misery of which the Jacobins are the cause due to the systematic war they have waged against property during the preceding four years.