l kinds of permanent
property. Whatever articles of permanent value certain needy people were
willing to sell certain cunning people were willing to buy and to pay
good prices for in _assignats_. At this, hope revived for a time in
certain quarters. But ere long it was discovered that this was one of
the most distressing results of a natural law which is sure to come into
play under such circumstances. It was simply a feverish activity caused
by the intense desire of a large number of the shrewder class to convert
their paper money into anything and everything which they could hold and
hoard until the collapse which they foresaw should take place. This very
activity in business simply indicated the disease. It was simply legal
robbery of the more enthusiastic and trusting by the more cold-hearted
and keen. It was, the "unloading" of the _assignats_ upon the mass of
the people. [64]

Interesting is it to note in the midst of all this the steady action
of another simple law in finance. Prisons, guillotines, enactments
inflicting twenty years' imprisonment in chains upon persons twice
convicted of buying or selling paper money at less than its nominal
value, and death upon investors in foreign securities, were powerless.
The National Convention, fighting a world in arms and with an armed
revolt on its own soil, showed titanic power, but in its struggle to
circumvent one simple law of nature its weakness was pitiable. The
_louis d'or_ stood in the market as a monitor, noting each day, with
unerring fidelity, the decline in value of the _assignat_; a monitor not
to be bribed, not to be scared. As well might the National Convention
try to bribe or scare away the polarity of the mariner's compass. On
August 1, 1795, this gold _louis_ of 25 _francs_ was worth in paper,
920 _francs_; on September 1st, 1,200 _francs_; on November 1st, 2,600
_francs_; on December 1st, 3,050 _francs_. In February, 1796, it was
worth 7,200 _francs_ or one franc in gold was worth 288 _francs_ in
paper. Prices of all commodities went up nearly in proportion. [65]
The writings of this period give curious details. Thibaudeau, in his
Memoirs, speaks of sugar as 500 _francs_ a pound, soap, 230 _francs_,
candles, 140 _francs_. Mercier, in his lifelike pictures of the French
metropolis at that period, mentions 600 _francs_ as carriage hire for a
single drive, and 6,000 for an entire day. Examples from other sources
are such as the following:--a measure of f