It constituted itself
quartermaster-general to the community, and doled out stinted
rations alike to rich and poor, with that stern democratic
impartiality peculiar to times of mortal peril. But this served
only, like most artificial palliatives, to lengthen out the
misery. At the time of the surrender, not a loaf of bread could
be obtained for love or money.
In this way a bungling act of legislation helped to decide for
the worse a campaign which involved the territorial integrity and
future welfare of what might have become a great nation
performing a valuable function in the system of European
communities.
The striking character of this instructive example must be our
excuse for presenting it at such length. At the beginning of the
famine in Bengal the authorities legislated in very much the same
spirit as the burghers who had to defend Antwerp against Parma.
"By interdicting what it was pleased to term the monopoly of
grain, it prevented prices from rising at once to their natural
rates. The Province had a certain amount of food in it, and this
food had to last about nine months. Private enterprise if left to
itself would have stored up the general supply at the harvest,
with a view to realizing a larger profit at a later period in the
scarcity. Prices would in consequence have immediately risen,
compelling the population to reduce their consumption from the
very beginning of the dearth.
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