The frightful oppression of _tailles_, _aides_, _corvées_, _gabelles_, and other dues that crushed the hapless peasant in the pre-Revolutionary era, weighed with especial severity upon the _vigneron_. In virtue of the _droit de gros_, the officers could at any hour make an inventory of his wine, decree how much he might consume himself, and tax him for the remainder.[221] The _fermiers généraux_, who farmed the taxes of the province, became his sleeping partners, and had their share in his crop.[222] In a vineyard at Epernay, upon four pieces of wine, the average produce of an arpent, and valued at 600 francs, the _ferme_ levied first 30 francs, and then when the pieces were sold 75 francs more.[223] The ecclesiastical tithe was also a heavy burden, at Hautvillers the eleventh of the wine being taken as _dismes_, at Dizy the twelfth, and at Pierry the twentieth.[224] The result was one continuous struggle of trickery on the part of the grower, and cunning on that of the officers.[225] The visits of the latter were paid almost daily, and their registers recorded every drop of wine in the cellars of the inhabitants.[226] [Illustration] But the wine had by no means acquitted all its dues. The merchant buying it had to pay another 75 francs to the _ferme_ before despatching it to the consumer. When he did despatch it, the _ferme_ strictly prescribed the route it was to take, any deviation from this being punished by confiscation; and it had to pay at almost every step. Transport by water was excessively onerous from constantly recurring tolls, and by land whole days were lost in undergoing examinations and verifications and making payments.[227] The commissionnaire charged with the conveyance of Bertin du Rocheret's wine to Calais from Epernay had from 70 to 75 francs per poinçon. Despite all these drawbacks, the export trade must have been considerable, for we are told that prior to the Revolution the profits on supplying two or three abbeys of Flanders were sufficient to enable a wine-merchant of Reims to live in good style.[228]