As a result, the issues became larger still, and four hundred workmen
were added to those previously engaged in furnishing this paper money,
and these were so pressed with work from six o'clock in the morning
until eight in the evening that they struck for higher wages and were
successful.[43]

The consequences of these overissues now began to be more painfully
evident to the people at large. Articles of common consumption became
enormously dear and prices were constantly rising. Orators in the
Legislative Assembly, clubs, local meetings and elsewhere now
endeavored to enlighten people by assigning every reason for this
depreciation save the true one. They declaimed against the corruption
of the ministry, the want of patriotism among the Moderates, the
intrigues of the emigrant nobles, the hard-heartedness of the rich,
the monopolizing spirit of the merchants, the perversity of the
shopkeepers,---each and all of these as causes of the difficulty.[44]

This decline in the government paper was at first somewhat masked by
fluctuations. For at various times the value of the currency _rose_.
The victory of Jemappes and the general success of the French army
against the invaders, with the additional security offered by new
confiscations of land, caused, in November, 1792, an appreciation in
the value of the currency; the franc had stood at 57 and it rose to
about 69; but the downward tendency was soon resumed and in September,
1793, the _assignats_ had sunk below 30. Then sundry new victories
and coruscations of oratory gave momentary confidence so that in
December, 1793, they rose above 50. But despite these fluctuations
the downward tendency soon became more rapid than ever.[45]

The washerwomen of Paris, finding soap so dear that they could hardly