the criminal's property, and so reward was offered
to any person informing the authorities regarding any such criminal
transaction. To reach the climax of ferocity, the Convention decreed,
in May, 1794, that the death penalty should be inflicted on any person
convicted of "having asked, before a bargain was concluded, in what
money payment was to be made." Nor was this all. The great finance
minister, Cambon, soon saw that the worst enemies of his policy were
gold and silver. Therefore it was that, under his lead, the Convention
closed the Exchange and finally, on November 13, 1793, under terrifying
penalties, suppressed all commerce in the precious metals. About a year
later came the abolition of the Maximum itself. [52]

It is easily seen that these _Maximum_ laws were perfectly logical.
Whenever any nation intrusts to its legislators the issue of a currency
not based on the idea of redemption in standard coin recognized in the
commerce of civilized nations, it intrusts to them the power to raise or
depress the value of every article in the possession of every citizen.
Louis XIV had claimed that all property in Prance was his own, and that
what private persons held was as much his as if it were in his coffers.
But even this assumption is exceeded by the confiscating power exercised
in a country, where, instead of leaving values to be measured by a
standard common to the whole world, they are left to be depressed or
raised at the whim, caprice or interest of a body of legislators. When
this power is given, the power of prices is inevitably included in
it. [53]

It may be said that these measures were made necessary by the war then
going on. Nothing could be more baseless than such an objection. In this
war the French soon became generally successful. It was quickly pushed
mainly upon foreign soil. Numerous contributions were levied upon the
subjugated countries to support the French armies. The war was one of
those in which the loss, falling apparently on future generations, first
stimulates, in a sad way, trade and production. The main cause of these
evils was tampering with the circulating medium of an entire nation;
keeping all values in fluctuation; discouraging enterprise; paralyzing
energy; undermining sobriety; obliterating thrift; promoting
extravagance and exciting riot by the issue of an irredeemable currency.
The true business way of meeting the enormous demands on France during
the first years of the Revo