758 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



xvithout any of the evils that at^ sure to flow from 

 Ihem. It may easily be conceived, that in a 

 country vvliere the people live al.nost entirely on 

 bread, and the blind proceedinirs of mobs are en- 

 couraffed by arrets of parliaments, seconded by 

 such blunders of (jovernment as [ have described, 

 and unaided by the beneficial existence of real mo- 

 nopolizers—it may easily be conceived, I say, that 

 the supi)ly must be irregular, and in many instan- 

 ces insufReicnt : it must be insulHcient, exactly in 

 proportion to the violence oC the populace ; and a 

 very high price will be the unavoidable conse- 

 quence, whatever may be the fpiantity in the 

 Ivinirdom. In .Tune and July 1789, the markets 

 were not opened before troops arrived to protect 

 the farmers from having their corn seized; and the 

 magistrates, to avoid insurrections amonir the peo- 

 ple, set the assize too low upon corn, bread, and 

 butcher's meat ; that is they fixed the prices at 

 which they were to be sold, which is a most per- 

 nicious regulation. The farmers, in consequence, 

 refrained llom going to market, in order to sell 

 their wheat at home at the best price they could 

 get, which was of course much higher than the 

 assize of the markets. How welf these princi- 

 ples, which such ample experience proves to be 

 just, are understood in France, mav be collected 

 from the cahiers, * many of which demand mea- 

 sures which, if really pursued, would spread ab- 

 solute famine through everv province in the king- 

 dom. It is demanded at one"pIace, '-'that as France 

 is exposed to the rigors of famine, every fiirmer 

 should be obliged to register his cropof every kind, 

 gerbs, bottes, muids, &c. ; and also every month the 

 quantity sold." Another requites, " the export be 

 severely prohibited, as well as the circulation from 

 province to province; and that importation be al- 

 ways allowed.'' A third, " that the severest laws 

 be passed against monopolizers; a circumstance, 

 which at present desolates the kingdom." A s3-s- 

 tem of prohibition of export is demanded by no less 

 than twelve cahiers. And fifteen demand the erec- 

 tion of public magazines, f Of all solecisms, none 

 ever equalled Paris demanding that the transport 

 of corn from province to province should be pro- 

 hibited. Such a request is reallv edifying, by of- 

 fering to the attention of the philosophical obser- 

 ver, mankind under a new feature, worthy of the 

 knowledge and intelligence that ought to reign in 

 the capita; of a great "empire ; and Mons. Necker 

 was exactly suited to be minister in the corn de- 

 partment of such a city ! 



The conclusions to "be dravvn from the whole 



* Instructions to the deputies to the National Assem- 

 bly.— Ed. 



1 1 have lately seen (January, 1792,) in a public print, 

 the mention of a proposal of one of the ministers to erect 

 public magazines ; there wants nothins; else to completn 

 the system of absurdity in relation to corn which has in- 

 fested that fine liingdom. Magazines can do nothing 

 more than private accapareiirs; they can only buy when 

 corn is cheap, and sell when it is dear; but they do 

 this, at such a vast expence, and with so Tittle econ- 

 omy, that if they do nut take an equal advantage and 

 profit with private speculators, they must demand an 

 enormous tax to enable them to carry on their busi- 

 ness ; and if they do take such profit, the people are 

 never tlie better for them. Mr. Svmonds, in his paper 

 on the public magazines of Italy," has proved them to 

 be every where nuisances. See Jnnals of Jsricvlture, 

 vol. xiii, p. 299, &c. j t^ , 



business, are evident enough. There is but one 

 poliCT«Tvhich can secure a suppiv with entire safety 

 to a kingdom so populous and" so ill cultivated as 

 b ranee, with so large a portion of its territory un- 

 der wood and vines; the policy I mean is an en- 

 tire and absolute liberty of export and import at 

 ad times, and at all prices, to be persisted in with 

 the same unremitted firmness that has not only 

 rescued Tuscany from the jaws of periodical fiim- 

 ines, but has given her eighteen years of plenty, 

 without the intervention of a moment's want. A 

 great and important experiment! and if it has an- 

 swered in such a mountainous, and, on compari- 

 son with France, a barren territory, thoun-h full of 

 people, assuredly it would fulfil every hope, in so 

 noble and li?rtile a kingdom as France. But to se- 

 cure a regular and certain supply, it is necessary 

 that the farmer be equally secure of a steady and 

 o'ood price. The average price in France vibrates 

 betvveen IS and 22 liv. a septier of 240 lb. I made 

 inquiries through many provinces in 1789, into the 

 common price, ns well as that of the moment, and 

 found (reducing their measures to the septier of 

 240 lb. ;) that the mean price in Champao-ue is 18 

 hv. ; in Loraine 17.^ ; in Alsace 22 liv. ; in'Franche 

 Coinpte 20 hv. ; ni HourgoiTne 18 iiv. ; at Avi.Tuon, 

 &c 24; at Paris, I believe,^ it mav be calculated at 

 19 hv. Perhaps the price, throuir'h the whole kino-. 

 dom, would be fbund to be about 20 liv. Novv, 

 without entering into any analysis of the subject,' 

 o^r forming any comparison with other countries, 

 France ought to know, at least she has dearly 

 learned from experience, that this is not a price 

 sufficient to give such encourugcment to the far- 

 mers as to secure her a certainty of supply : no 

 nation can have enough ivithout a surplus : and 

 no surplus will ever be raiseil, where there is not 

 a h-ee [export] corn trade. The object, therefore, 

 of an absolutely free export, is to secure the home 

 supply. The mere profit of selling corn is no ob- 

 ject—it is less than none; for the right use thereof 

 IS to fi'ed your own people. But they cannot be 

 led, if the farmers have not encouragement to im- 

 prove their agriculture; and this encouragement 

 must certainly be of a good price. Experience 

 has proved sufficiently, that 20 liv. will not do. 

 An absolute fi-eedom of interior circulaiion is so 

 obviously necessary, that to name it is sufficient. 



A great and decided encouragement to mono- 

 polizers is as necessary to the regular supply, as 

 that seed should be sown to procure a crop ; but 

 reaping, in order to load the markets in winter, 

 and to starve the people in summer, can be remedi- 

 ed by no other person but an accopareur. * While 

 such men are therefore objects of public hatred ; 

 while even laws are in force against them, (the 

 most preposterous that can disgrace a people, 

 since they are made by the mouth, against the 

 hand for lifting food to 'it,) no regular supply can 

 be looked for. We may expect to see fimiine pe- 

 riodical, in a kingdom governed by the principles 

 which must take place, where the populace rule 

 not by enlightened representatives, but by the vi- 

 olence of their ignorant and unmanageable wills. 

 Paris governs the National Assembly; and the 



* The word speculator, in various passages of this 

 chapter, would be as proper as monopolizer, they mean 

 the same thing as accapareur — a man who buys corn 

 with a view to selling it at a higher price ; whatever 

 term is used, the thing meant is every where under- 

 stood. 



mm 



