[52] See especially Verdier to Augereau, no. 53, and to the Minister, no. 61, of Belmas’s Appendices.
[53] The very interesting list of the prices of commodities at the commencement and the end of the siege, drawn up by Dr. Ruiz, one of the Gerona diarists, may be found on p. 579 of Arteche’s vol. vii. Note the following—the real (20 to the dollar) = 2½d. :—
| Reals. | ||
| In June. | In Sept. | |
| Wheat flour, the qr. | 80 | 112 |
| Barleymeal, the qr. | 30 | 56 |
| Oatmeal, the qr. | 48 | 80 |
| Coffee, the lb. | 8 | 24 |
| Chocolate, the lb. | 16 | 64 |
| Oil, the measure | 2½ | 24 |
| Salt fish, the lb. | 2¼ | 32 |
| Cheese, the lb. | 4 | 40 |
| Wood, the arroba (32 lb.) | 5 | 48 |
| Charcoal, ditto | 3½ | 40 |
| Tobacco, the lb. | 24 | 100 |
| A fowl | 14 | 320 |
| Rice, the lb. | 1½ | 32 |
| Fresh fish from the Ter, the lb. | 4 | 36 |
Thus while flour and meal had not doubled in value, coffee had gone up threefold, chocolate and tobacco fourfold, cheese and fuel tenfold, and the other commodities far more.
[54] See Toreno, ii, and Arteche, vii. 412.
[55] See St. Cyr to the Minister, Belmas, ii. Appendix no. 67.
[56] Augereau to the Minister, ibid., Oct. 8.
[57] See Souham’s dispatch, striving to make the combat into a very big business, in Belmas, ii, Appendix no. 72, and cf. Arteche, vii. pp. 430-1.
[58] See Pino’s and Augereau’s dispatches in Belmas’s Appendices, nos. 73 and 74.
[59] Alvarez’s letter to Blake of Nov. 3 printed in Arteche’s Appendix, no. 18 of his vol. vii, gives this account of the first discovery of plots.