nt; "hence, at the time of the
depreciation of assignats, they bought land extraordinarily cheap." In
1796 they cultivate and produce a great deal.]

[Footnote 42103: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 72. (Letter of the
administrators of the district of Montpelier to the Convention, Messidor
26, year II.) "Your decree of Nivose 4 last, suppressed the 'maximum,'
which step, provoked by justice and the 'maximum,' did not have the
effect you anticipated." The dearth ceases, but there is a prodigious
increase in prices, the farmer selling his wheat at from four hundred
and seventy to six hundred and seventy francs the quintal.]

[Footnote 42104: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 71. (Deliberations of
the commune of Champs, canton of Lagny, Prairial 22, year III. Letter of
the procureur-syndic of Meaux, Messidor 3. Letter of the municipality of
Rozoy, Seine et Marne, Messidor 4.)--Ibid., AF., II., 74. (Letter of
the municipality of Emerainville, endorsed by the Directory of
Meaux, Messidor 14.) "The commune can procure only oat-bread for its
inhabitants, and, again, they have to go a long way to get this.
This food, of so poor a quality, far from strengthening the citizen
accustomed to agricultural labor, disheartens him and makes him ill,
the result being that the hay cannot be got in good time for lack of
hands."--At Champs, "the crop of hay is ready for mowing, but, for want
of food, the laborers cannot do the work."]

[Footnote 42105: Ibid., AF., II., 73. (Letter from the Directory of the
district of Dieppe, Prairial 22.)]

[Footnote 42106: Ibid. (Letter of the administrators of the district of
Louviers, Prairial 26.)]

[Footnote 42107: Ibid. (Letter of the procureur-syndic of the Caen
district, Caen, Messidor 23.--Letter of Representative Porcher to the
Committee of Public Safety, Messidor 26.--Letter of the same, Prairial
24. "The condition of this department seemed to me frightful.... The
privations of the department with respect to subsistence cannot be
over-stated to you; the evil is at its height."]

[Footnote 42108: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 74. (Letter of
the Beauvais administrators, Prairial 15.--Letter of the Bapaume
administrator, Prairial 24.--Letter of the Vervier administrator,
Messidor 7.--Letter of the commissary sent by the district of Laon,
Messidor.)--Cf., I6id., letter from the Abbeville district, Prairial 11.
"The quintal of wheat is sold at one thousand assignats, or rather,
the farmers will no