2) Measures for the Working Class, but Mostly for the Middle Classes
Houserent for the last 3 quarters up to April wholly remitted: Whoever had paid any of these 3 quarters shall have right of setting that sum against future payments. The same law to prevail in the case of furnished apartments. No notice to quit coming from landlords to be valid for 3 months to come. (29 March)*
échéances (Payment of bills of exchange due): (expiration of bills): all prosecutions for bills of exchange fallen due suspended. (12 April)h
All commercial papers of that sort to be repaid in repayment spread over two years, to begin next July 15, the debts being not chargeable with interest. The total amount of the sums due divided in 8 equal coupures, payable by trimestre (first trimester to be dated from July 15). Only on these partial payments when fallen due judicial prosecutions permitted. (16 April)[194] The Dufaure laws on leases and bills of exchange entailed the bankruptcy of the majority of the respectable shopkeepers of Paris.[180]
The notaries, huissiers,c auctioneers, bum-bailiffs and other judicial officers making till now a fortune of their functions transformed into agents of the Commune receiving from it fixed salaries like other workmen0;
As the Professors of the Ecole de Médecine have run away, the Commune appointed a Commission for the foundation of free universities, no longer state parasites; given to the students that had passed their examination means to practise independent of Doctor titles; (tides to be conferred by the faculty).
Since the judges of the Civil tribunal of the Seine, like the other magistrates always ready to function under any class government, had run away, Commune appointed an advocate to do the most urgent business until the reorganization of tribunals on the basis of general suffrage; (26 April)
Endnotes
[194] On April 12, 1871, the Commune suspended all kinds of prosecution for delay of payments (Décret sur la suspension des poursuites pour échéances) until the law on payment terms was published. The Paris Commune law of April 16, 1871 (Loi sur les échéances) provided for payment of all debts in instalments over three years and the abolition of interest on them. The law greatly alleviated the financial position of the petty bourgeoisie and was disadvantage-ous to the big capitalist creditors. pp. 336, 474
[180] On March 10, 1871, the National Assembly adopted a law on overdue bills. Accordingly, a seven-month moratorium was set for payments on security made from August 13 to November 12, 1870; no moratorium was allowed for payments on securities contracted after November 12. This meant that the law gave virtually no deferment to those in debt, the working class and the impecunious sections of the population. It also caused the bankruptcy of many small industrialists and merchants. During the siege of Paris, the time for rent payment was transferred from one quarter of a year to another. At the end of March 1871 another payment came due. The project advanced by Thiers and Dufaure gave house-owners the right, if the rent had not been paid for two years, to evict the tenants and appropriate their furniture and personal belongings. The National Assembly refused to consider the project. pp. 319, 441, 444, 474