State encouraged him to adopt some, in order that his estate might be
distributed amongst them. 'Equal rights,' said a deputy, 'could only be
maintained by a persistent tendency to uniformity of fortunes.'
'But,' said Barère, 'it is not enough to bleed the rich and to pull
down colossal fortunes. The slavery of poverty must be made to
disappear from the soil of the Republic.' Accordingly, for those
who had no means of subsistence the State provided in a variety of
ways. It allotted to them confiscated lands. It enrolled them in the
Revolutionary Army. It provided for them in the public service, or paid
them to attend committees, meetings and clubs. Communes were required
to draw up lists of all citizens who had no property of their own, in
order that the State might come to their relief. A 'big ledger of
national beneficence' was instituted in each department for the old,
the widowed and the infirm, so that they might receive pensions from
the State. 'Every citizen,' wrote St. Just, one of the law-givers of
the Terrorist Utopia, 'must have his own bread, his own roof, and all
that is indispensable for life. He must live independently, respect
himself, have a tidy wife and healthy and robust children.' But should
he decline to conform to this ideal, the penalty was death.
But it was not enough to furnish incomes for all; it was necessary
to take further measures to provide that the prices of necessaries
should be such that every man could buy them. Accordingly, by the
Maximum laws the State proceeded to fix a limit for the price of
bread; and from that it rapidly passed on to limit the prices of other
necessaries, of meat and vegetables, of soap and firewood, of butter,
tobacco, sugar, beer, even of manufactured articles and of raw material
as well. On the same grounds, in order to make things plentiful and
cheap, the State watched jealously over all dealers and producers.
Monopoly was made a capital crime. Manufacturers, agriculturists and
tradesmen were freely denounced as public enemies. Capitalists and
usurers were held up to public execration. The Bourse was closed.
Financial associations were suppressed. Bankers, stock-brokers,
and silver dealers were forbidden to exercise their calling. Heavy
restrictions limited the import and export trade of the country, and
the investment of capital abroad. Hébert declared that all tradesmen
were 'essentially anti-revolutionists, and would sell their country for
a few halfpence.' Other Jacobins maintained that 'nearly all farmers
were aristocrats,' and proscribed the butchers in particular as 'an
intolerable aristocracy.' The more these arbitrary measures failed,
the more implacably did their authors enforce them. Farmers were
forbidden to sell their produce privately. Shopkeepers were compelled
to offer to the public all that they had in their shops. Penalty of
death was denounced against the manufacturer who did not make full
use of his materials, penalty of death against the dealer who did not
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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