198 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
was a special charm in the shops where prices far 
below those at Issoire were ostentatiously fixed on 
elaborately displayed wares. And so— almost 
before the owner knew it — many an Issoire wagon 
was loaded down with cheap goods from Clermont. 
But although the octroi was paid at the city gates, 
the real purpose of the octroi was evaded. The 
money, in the first place, was spent outside the 
city. Worse than this, the octroi, instead of being 
paid by the agents of the Clermont merchants, — 
as the law intended, — was collected, as the mayor 
of Issoire now said, “off our own people.” For, if 
the octroi is to be collected in this way, “ off our 
own people,” it would be just as easy and a good 
deal cheaper and fairer to collect the tax in the 
usual way, in direct proportion to the value of 
each man’s income or capital. 
Another ordinance was clearly necessary. The 
wagon-maker at Issoire had long since gone out of 
the business. The prices of wood, iron, leather, 
and paint were such that he could not compete 
with Clermont manufacturers. So the wagon-shop 
was closed, and carriages and vehicles of every 
description were brought over from Clermont. 
The cost of these vehicles had been a heavy drain 
upon the resources of Issoire. The octroi alone 
would not remedy this, for nothing short of abso- 
lute prohibition of outside purchase would revive 
the wagon-trade. So the mayor proposed that by 
another bold stroke the dying industry should be 
revived, while at the same time the citizens of 
Issoire should be prevented from paying the octroi. 
It was enacted that no citizen of Issoire should 
