Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/464

448 years were for sale in the shops, it was evident that something must be done. The original concern decided to wait. It closed its factory and discharged its workmen. But some of the other firms could not wait. They must have their money back or go into bankruptcy. Shoes began to come down. Every shoe-dealer was alarmed, and a meeting was held in the Café de la Comédie to see what could be done. It was decided to lower the prices and then to maintain them. Boots were rated at fifteen francs per pair, and shoes and slippers in proportion. But one dealer could not keep his promise. He had a very large and handsome new shop, and he had spent much money in fitting it up. A gentleman, named Shylock, from whom he had borrowed the money, said that he had lent money for legitimate business, not for speculation; to sell shoes, not to hold them for higher prices. This stock of boots was thus forced on the market, to be sold for what it would bring. And other dealers had to sell for similar prices, or lose all chance of selling at all. And so Issoire was full of notices:

 "Grand Slaughter of Boots and Shoes!"

"Boots given away—only Five Francs a Pair!"

Boots were never so cheap before, in Issoire or anywhere else in France.

The Issoire Citizens' Foot-wear Manufacturing Company took no part in these cheap sales. Its agents were active, however, and they privately bought up a part of the stock of the smaller stores, and sent out several wagon-loads across the country to Clermont, and one down the river to the farmers in the valley of the Loire.

It was an era of cheap boots. Everybody was well shod. The children burned up their wooden shoes, or used them only for coasting in the winter, and there was general satisfaction. The Minister of Public Instruction, who spent a day in Issoire on his way from Marseilles to Paris, had a pair of new boots presented to him, and he showed them at home, as an example of what the octroi could do for a town. "Boots," said he to the Minister of Finance, "are actually cheaper to-day at Issoire than they are at Paris or Lyons. So much has the octroi done for my countrymen." And the mayor sent a message of congratulation, reminding the people that his promises had come true. "The octroi has reduced the price of boots, and has demonstrated the truth of the paradox that the quickest road to low prices is to make prices high." The traders who had gone into bankruptcy left Issoire and were speedily forgotten—except by their creditors, chief of whom was Monsieur Shylock. It did not much matter about them in any event. Their loss was the community's gain. It was not Issoire's fault that they were dealing on borrowed capital and could not stand the strain of reduced prices.