The third outgrowth of the vast issue of fiat money was the _Maximum_.
As far back as November, 1792, the Terrorist associate of Robespierre,
St. Just, in view of the steady rise in prices of the necessaries of
life, had proposed a scheme by which these prices should be
established by law, at a rate proportionate to the wages of the
working classes. This plan lingered in men's minds, taking shape in
various resolutions and decrees until the whole culminated on
September 29, 1793, in the Law of the _Maximum_.

While all this legislation was high-handed, it was not careless. Even
statesmen of the greatest strength, having once been drawn into this
flood, were borne on into excesses which, a little earlier, would have
appalled them. Committees of experts were appointed to study the
whole subject of prices, and at last there were adopted the great
"four rules" which seemed to statesmen of that time a masterly
solution of the whole difficulty.[48]

_First_, the price of each article of necessity was to be fixed at one
and one-third its price in 1790. _Secondly_, all transportation was
to be added at a fixed rate per league. _Thirdly_, five per cent was
to be added for the profit of the wholesaler. _Fourthly_, ten per
cent was to be added for the profit of the retailer. Nothing could
look more reasonable. Great was the jubilation. The report was
presented and supported by Barrère,--"the tiger monkey,"--then in all
the glory of his great orations: now best known from his portrait by
Macaulay. Nothing could withstand Barrère's eloquence. He insisted
that France had been suffering from a "_Monarchical_ commerce which
only sought wealth," while what she needed and what she was now to
receive was a "_Republican_ commerce--a commerce of moderate profits