" -- "Above all," writes the Rouen Parliament, "let help be
sent to a perishing people . . .. Sire, most of your subjects
are unable to pay the price of bread, and what bread is given to
those who do buy it " -- Arthur Young,[4] who was traveling through
France at this time, heard of nothing but the high cost of bread and
the distress of the people. At Troyes bread costs four sous a pound
-- that is to say, eight sous of the present day; and unemployed
artisans flock to the relief works, where they can earn only twelve
sous a day. In Lorraine, according to the testimony of all
observers, "the people are half dead with hunger." In Paris the
number of paupers has been trebled; there are thirty thousand in the
Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone. Around Paris there is a short supply
of grain, or it is spoilt[5]. In the beginning of July, at
Montereau, the market is empty. "The bakers could not have baked"
if the police officers had not increased the price of bread to five
sous per pound; the rye and barley which the intendant is able to
send "are of the worst possible quality, rotten and in a condition
to produce dangerous diseases.
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