186 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



these necessary articles should not wear out, at the 

 same time, the wealth of the town. 



" People will have boots," the mayor said ; " they 

 cannot afford to bring them in from Clermont, and 

 so they will make them at Issoire, and all the boot- 

 money will remain at home. It is as though, so far 

 as the city is concerned, Issoire gets her boots for 

 nothing. To be sure, Clermont has good water- 

 power, and her nearness to the mountains makes 

 the price of hides and tan-bark lower, but this has 

 nothing to do with the question. Natural advan- 

 tages amount to nothing when artificial advantages 

 can be given by a mere stroke of the pen. The 

 laws of political economy are not of universal appli- 

 cation. Depend upon the octroi to make all things 

 equal." 



A new boot-factory was now built at Issoire, and 

 boots were offered for sale at twenty francs a pair. 

 The cost of boots at Clermont was ten francs, and 

 the octroi charges at the city gate amounted to ten 

 francs more. Buying at twenty francs would save 

 the purchaser a trip to Clermont and back, and, as 

 trade is apt to flow in the direction of least resist- 

 ance, after a little the Issoire boot industry became 

 fairly established. There was some grumbling at 

 high prices. Some of the laboring classes went 

 barefooted, while the doctor and the schoolmaster 

 put their boys and girls into wooden shoes, or sabots, 

 such as peasant children wear. But the mayor and 

 the Common Council took shares in the new factory, 

 and, being members of the company, they got their 

 boots at the old rate, besides having a part in the 

 large dividends which the business soon began to 



