England in 1790. The [end of page #150] want in Paris was so real
that there often was not, in that great city, bread, and materials to
make it, more than sufficient for twenty-four hours: yet it never rose
to above double the usual price, or twopence English the pound, (that
is, sixteen sols for the four-pound loaf,) although the people were
obliged to wait from six in the morning till two or three in the
afternoon, before they could get a loaf a piece, and more they were not
permitted to purchase or carry away. In London, where bread could
always be had in plenty, for money, it rose to more than three times
the usual price, (one and tenpence the quartern loaf,) yet bread is a
much more necessary article to the poor in Paris than in London. But
the case was, in London, the people are richer, and, in each place, it
rose as high as the people were found able to pay.
-=-

When the necessaries of life become dear, and arrive at a monopoly-
price, then all taxes and other burthens laid on the people become a
matter comparatively of little importance. In England, where the taxes
are higher than in any nation in the world, they do not come on the
poor to above three pounds a head; {127} and, of those, at least one-
half can be avoided by a little self-denial. But, when the provisions
increase one-half in price, it amounts to at least four pounds a head to
each person; so that the effect falls on the population of the country,
with a most extraordinary degree of severity.

But, great as this evil is, it has, by the circumstances and nature of
things, a tendency to increase the very cause in which it originates.
Though the highness of price diminishes the consumption of victuals
in general, it diminishes the consumption of vegetable food, or bread,
more than it does that of animal food. Though all sorts of eatables rise