Proudhon - A Biography

THE MAN OF AFFAIRS
Even when he returned to Paris in January, 1847, it was to
become involved in ‘a new, monstrous affair’ for his employers.
The Gauthiers were appealing to the government for two thou­
sand draft horses to operate a plan for the carriage of wheat on
the Rhone. The scheme had some urgency, for during the winter
o f 1846-7 Eastern France underwent a severe famine owing to the
bad harvest of the previous autumn, and the price of bread more
than doubled. The government imported wheat to ease the situa­
tion, and it was in the distribution o f this that the Gauthiers
proposed to make such an economy that the price o f a loaf would
be reduced by half. For more than a month Proudhon was in daily
contact with the Chamber, but nothing came of the scheme he
fostered. ‘We were welcomed by the deputies,’ he recollected,
‘but politely shown out by the ministers; that was to be expected.’
It is impossible now to say whether the government of Louis
Philippe had rejected an idea that might have helped it to solve
the dangerous situation which existed in the country at this time
— for the famine o f 1846-7, badly managed by the Ministry, cer­
tainly intensified the long economic crisis that led up to the
Revolution o f the next year.
But neither economic crisis nor the attempts of benevolent
capitalists to alleviate it, played the most dramatic part in Proud­
hon’s return to the capital in 1847. Rather, it was his conversion
from a cautious bachelor into an enterprising and original suitor.
Several years earlier, while he deplored the restricting effect of
marriage on many o f his friends, he had already begun to hint
that he had by no means ruled out this condition as a possibility
for himself. In the autumn of 1844, for instance, he remarked to
Tourneux: ‘I shall occupy myself with gathering all the elements
of success that crop up. God will do the rest. Afterwards, if I
meet some poor and tender creature who wishes to entrust her
cares to me, I shall try to enable her to live as little badly as I can.
That is all I can say.’ Finally, after years of indecision, he suddenly
decided that the time to marry had arrived.
A t this time he had acquired a certain eccentricity o f manner
and appearance which doubtless went well with the unorthodoxy
of his opinions but which made him an odd-looking figure even
in the Latin Quarter. A few months before, a young admirer,
Alfred Darimon, had encountered him at an eating-house called
the Restaurant Beaurain in the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires.