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Authors: James M. Anderson
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and about 10,000 crewmen. The boats were primarily
cod boats used for fishing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and in Icelandic
waters. Le Havre and Honfleur were the principal ports that supplied Paris with
cod, while Nantes supplied the Loire region, St. Malo provided Brittany and
Normandy with fish, and Marseille took care of the south. Two fleets went out
each year, the first leaving in January and returning in July and the second
leaving in March, to return in November. The fish was either salted or dried
for preservation. Paris also received cod caught off English coasts by English fishermen
and imported via Dieppe.
For Norman communities, especially St. Malo, cod was the
“beef of the sea,” and the French continued to fish from bases around the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and St. Pierre and Miquelon in spite of growing English
dominance. In northern regions, wet or salted cod was preferred, while the more
thoroughly processed dried cod went to the south. In 1772, the largest
distributor of cod in Europe was the port city of Marseille, which sent the
fish throughout the region and to Spain, Italy, and other Mediterranean
locations.
Besides cod, herring was imported and arrived in the large
cities such as Paris by river and by the chasse-marées who carried them on
horseback from the north coasts to the denizens of the city. They rode all
night, horses weighted down with herring and oysters, so that those who could
afford it could have fresh seafood. Imported herring from countries like
Holland carried very high tariffs, and most people could not pay the price.
Food from the sea was often supplanted inland by local fish from rivers and
streams, sold on the market by licensed fishermen.
REVOLUTION AND THE ECONOMY
Figures show that the total value of the country’s trade in
1795 was less than half what it had been in 1789; by 1815, it was still only 60
percent of what it had been at the beginning of the revolution.
More than any other class of people, perhaps, the
manufacturers felt the effects of the revolution the most profoundly. The
rivalry with English textile makers, strong in 1787 and 1788; the revolutionary
movement in 1789 in which so many landlords, clergy, and those in public
employment lost income; the emigration of the wealthy classes, causing
unemployment for many others; the falling value of the assignats—all combined
to lower purchasing power and industrial output. Those whose investments were
safe nevertheless restricted their buying and hoarded their money, apprehensive
about the unsettled state and the prospect of civil war. The result was,
predictably, immense unemployment and a starving population, especially in the
big cities.
On December 29, 1789, Young visited Lyon and conversed with
the citizens. Twenty thousand people were unemployed, badly fed by charity;
industry was in a dismal state; and the distress among the lower classes was
the worst they had ever experienced. The cause of the problem was attributed to
stagnation of trade resulting from the emigration of the rich. Bankruptcies
were common.
The Constituent Assembly’s economic reforms were guided by
laissez-faire doctrine, along with hostility to privileged corporations that
resembled too much those of the old regime. The Assembly wanted to make
opportunities accessible to every man and to promote individual initiative. It
dismantled internal tariffs, along with chartered trading monopolies, and
abolished the guilds of merchants and artisans. Every citizen was given the
right to enter any trade and to freely conduct business. Regulation of wages
would no longer be of government concern, nor would the quality of the product.
Workers, the Assembly insisted, must bargain in the economic marketplace as
individuals; it thereby banned associations and strikes. Similar precepts of
economic individualism applied to the countryside. Peasants and landlords were
free to cultivate their fields as they liked, regardless of
cod boats used for fishing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and in Icelandic
waters. Le Havre and Honfleur were the principal ports that supplied Paris with
cod, while Nantes supplied the Loire region, St. Malo provided Brittany and
Normandy with fish, and Marseille took care of the south. Two fleets went out
each year, the first leaving in January and returning in July and the second
leaving in March, to return in November. The fish was either salted or dried
for preservation. Paris also received cod caught off English coasts by English fishermen
and imported via Dieppe.
For Norman communities, especially St. Malo, cod was the
“beef of the sea,” and the French continued to fish from bases around the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and St. Pierre and Miquelon in spite of growing English
dominance. In northern regions, wet or salted cod was preferred, while the more
thoroughly processed dried cod went to the south. In 1772, the largest
distributor of cod in Europe was the port city of Marseille, which sent the
fish throughout the region and to Spain, Italy, and other Mediterranean
locations.
Besides cod, herring was imported and arrived in the large
cities such as Paris by river and by the chasse-marées who carried them on
horseback from the north coasts to the denizens of the city. They rode all
night, horses weighted down with herring and oysters, so that those who could
afford it could have fresh seafood. Imported herring from countries like
Holland carried very high tariffs, and most people could not pay the price.
Food from the sea was often supplanted inland by local fish from rivers and
streams, sold on the market by licensed fishermen.
REVOLUTION AND THE ECONOMY
Figures show that the total value of the country’s trade in
1795 was less than half what it had been in 1789; by 1815, it was still only 60
percent of what it had been at the beginning of the revolution.
More than any other class of people, perhaps, the
manufacturers felt the effects of the revolution the most profoundly. The
rivalry with English textile makers, strong in 1787 and 1788; the revolutionary
movement in 1789 in which so many landlords, clergy, and those in public
employment lost income; the emigration of the wealthy classes, causing
unemployment for many others; the falling value of the assignats—all combined
to lower purchasing power and industrial output. Those whose investments were
safe nevertheless restricted their buying and hoarded their money, apprehensive
about the unsettled state and the prospect of civil war. The result was,
predictably, immense unemployment and a starving population, especially in the
big cities.
On December 29, 1789, Young visited Lyon and conversed with
the citizens. Twenty thousand people were unemployed, badly fed by charity;
industry was in a dismal state; and the distress among the lower classes was
the worst they had ever experienced. The cause of the problem was attributed to
stagnation of trade resulting from the emigration of the rich. Bankruptcies
were common.
The Constituent Assembly’s economic reforms were guided by
laissez-faire doctrine, along with hostility to privileged corporations that
resembled too much those of the old regime. The Assembly wanted to make
opportunities accessible to every man and to promote individual initiative. It
dismantled internal tariffs, along with chartered trading monopolies, and
abolished the guilds of merchants and artisans. Every citizen was given the
right to enter any trade and to freely conduct business. Regulation of wages
would no longer be of government concern, nor would the quality of the product.
Workers, the Assembly insisted, must bargain in the economic marketplace as
individuals; it thereby banned associations and strikes. Similar precepts of
economic individualism applied to the countryside. Peasants and landlords were
free to cultivate their fields as they liked, regardless of
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