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. Butthe 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 
