Complaints, accordingly, continually reached the Government from those who were unable to satisfy the demands of the traders, and the Government was compelled to visit the culprits with the penalties they had power to impose, which included not only physical punishment but confiscation of all their goods, and frequently the payment of a heavy fine. The bakers of Paris suffered most from the tyrannical edicts, and on one occasion no fewer than eighteen were fined, placed in the stocks, and had their goods confiscated. The final edict, published during the period of Law’s management of the Bank and of the Company, appeared on 24th October, which directed that all the original shareholders of the Company who still retained their shares should deposit these with the Company, and that those who had sold the whole or part of their shares should now purchase the necessary number from the Company to make up the total of their original holdings at the price of 13,500 livres per share. To provide for the new purchases which this edict required an additional 50,000 shares were created, so that on the assumption that this number represented the minimum necessary to make up the deficiencies of holdings the Company would have absorbed over 600,000,000 livres of depreciated paper. But the edict contained the elements of its own destruction. It was impossible of accomplishment. The victims refused to purchase from the Company shares for 13,500 livres which were obtainable in the market for a mere tithe of that sum, and many of them immediately prepared to leave the country with all their belongings. So general were these preparations that no person was allowed to cross the frontier without the permission of the Regent on pain of death. The closest watch was kept upon all the main highways, and numerous arrests were made of suspected emigrants. Many millions of livres and considerable quantities of plate and jewellery, which their possessors attempted to smuggle across the frontiers, were seized and appropriated, the culprits being sent back to Paris to undergo punishment. In no case however was the extreme penalty imposed, confiscation and ruin being mercifully judged sufficient punishment.