Thus came a collapse in manufacturing and commerce, just as it had
come previously in France: just as it came at various periods in
Austria, Russia, America, and in all countries where men have tried to
build up prosperity on irredeemable paper.[32]

All this breaking down of the manufactures and commerce of the nation
made fearful inroads on the greater fortunes; but upon the lesser, and
upon the little properties of the masses of the nation who relied upon
their labor, it pressed with intense severity. The capitalist could
put his surplus paper money into the government lands and await
results; but the men who needed their money from day to day suffered
the worst of the misery. Still another difficulty appeared. There
had come a complete uncertainty as to the future. Long before the
close of 1791 no one knew whether a piece of paper money representing
a hundred _livres_ would, a month later, have a purchasing power of
ninety or eighty or sixty _livres_. The result was that capitalists
feared to embark their means in business. Enterprise received a
mortal blow. Demand for labor was still further diminished; and here
came a new cause of calamity: for this uncertainty withered all
far-reaching undertakings. The business of France dwindled into a
mere living from hand to mouth. This state of things, too, while it
bore heavily upon the moneyed classes, was still more ruinous to those
in moderate and, most of all, to those in straitened circumstances.
With the masses of the people, the purchase of every article of supply
became a speculation--a speculation in which the professional
speculator had an immense advantage over the ordinary buyer. Says the
most brilliant of apologists for French revolutionary statesmanship,
"Commerce was dead; betting took its place."[33]

Nor was there any compensating advantage to the mercantile classes.