—It is a damnable fraud! What! A fool goes into a silly enterprise, he spends his money, and if he extorts from me wine or grain enough to make good his losses, and even to make him a profit, he calls it a general gain!
—Your representative having come to that conclusion, all you have to do is to give me the six hogsheads of wine, and sell the fourteen that I leave you for as much as possible.
—That is my business.
—For, you see, it would be very annoying if you did not get a good price for them.
—I will think of it.
—For there are many things which the money you receive must procure.
—I know it, sir. I know it.
—In the first place, if you buy iron to renew your spades and plowshares, a law declares that you must pay the iron-master twice what it was worth.
—Ah, yes; does not the same thing happen in the Black Forest?
—Then, if you need oil, meat, cloth, coal, wool and sugar, each one by the law will cost you twice what it is worth.