4236 ([return])
[ Dr. Jaïn, "Choix de documents et lettres privées trouvees dans des papiers de famille," p.144. (Letter of Gédëon Jaïn, banker at Paris, November 18, 1793.) "Business carried on with difficulty and at a great risk occasion frequent and serious losses, credit and resources being almost nothing.">[
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[ Archives Nationales, F.7, 2475. (Letters of Thullier, procureur-syndic of the Paris department, September 7 and 10, 1793.—Report by a member of the Piques section, September 8 and 10, 1793.—Cf. the petitions of traders and lawyers imprisoned at Troyes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, etc.—Archives Nationales, AF.,II., 271. Letter of Francastel: "At least three thousand monopolist aristocrats have been arrested at Nantes.... and this is not the last purification.">[
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[ Decrees of May 4, 15, 19, 20 and 23, and of August 30, 1793.—Decrees of July 26, August 15, September II, 1793, and February 24, 1794.—Camille Boursier, "Essai sur la Terreur en Anjou," p. 254. (Letter of Buissart to his friend Maximilian Robespierre, Arras, Pluviose 14, year II.) "we are dying with starvation in the midst of abundance; I think that the mercantile aristocracy ought to be killed out like the nobles and priests. The communes, with the help of a storehouse of food and goods must alone be allowed to trade. This idea, well carried out, can be realized; then, the benefits of trade will turn to the advantage of the Republic, that is to say, to the advantage of buyer and seller.">[
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[ Archives Nationales, AF., II., 49. (Documents on the levy of revolutionary taxes, Belfort, Brumaire 30, year II.) "Verneur, sr., taxed at ten thousand livres, for having withheld goods deposited with him by his sister, in order to save them from the coming taxation." Campardon I., 292. (Judgments of the revolutionary commission at Strasbourg.)—"The head-clerk in Hecht's apothecary shop is accused of selling two ounces of rhubarb and manna at fifty-four sous; Hecht, the proprietor, is condemned to a fine of fifteen thousand livres. Madeleine Meyer, at Rosheim, a retailer, is accused of selling a candle for ten sous and is condemned to a fine of one thousand livres, payable in three days. Braun, butcher and bar-keeper, accused of having sold a glass of wine for twenty sous, is condemned to a fine of forty thousand francs, to be imprisoned until this is paid, and to exposure in the pillory before his own house for four hours, with this inscription: debaser of the national currency."—"Recueil de Pieces, etc., at Strasbourg," (supplement, pp. 21, 30, 64). "Marie Ursule Schnellen and Marie Schultzmann, servant, accused of monopolising milk. The former is sentenced to the pillory for one day under a placard, monopoliser of milk, and to hold in one hand the money and, in the other, the milk-pot; the other, a servant with citizen Benner. ... he, the said Benner, is sentenced to a fine of three hundred livres, payable in three days."—"Dorothy Franz, convicted of having sold two heads of salad at twenty sous, and of thus having depreciated the value of assignats, is sentenced to a fine of three thousand livres, imprisonment for six weeks and exposure in the pillory for two hours."—Ibid., I., 18. "A grocer, accused of having sold sugar-candy at lower than the rate, although not comprised in the list, is sentenced to one hundred thousand livres fine and imprisonment until peace is declared."—Orders by Saint-Just and Lebas, Nivose 3, year II. "The criminal court of the department of the Lower-Rhine is ordered to destroy the house of any one convicted of having made sales below the rates fixed by the maximum," consequently, the house of one Schauer, a furrier, is torn down, Nivose 7.]
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[ Archives des Affaires Étrangères, vol. 322. (Letter by Haupt, Belfort, Brumaire 3, year II.) "On my arrival here, I found the law of the maximum promulgated and in operation... (but) the necessary steps have not been taken to prevent a new monopoly by the country people, who have flocked in to the shops of the dealers, carried off all their goods and created a factitious dearth.">[