Editing Incomes policy (section)

===France===
During the [[French Revolution]] in the 1790s, "[[The Law of the Maximum]]" was imposed in an attempt to decrease inflation. It consisted of limits on wages and [[food prices]].<ref name="gmu"/> Many dissidents were [[guillotine|executed]] for breaking this law.<ref name="fiat money">	 
{{cite news
 |last=White 
 |first=Andrew Dickson 
 |title=The French Revolution 
 |work=Fiat Money: Inflation in France 
 |date=1912 
 |url=http://www.compulink.co.uk/~archaeology/civilisation/Later/french_revolution.htm 
 |access-date=2008-11-03 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808135719/http://www.compulink.co.uk/~archaeology/civilisation/Later/french_revolution.htm 
 |archive-date=August 8, 2008 
}}</ref> The law was repealed 14 months after its introduction.<ref name="fiat money"/> By turning the crimes of [[price gouging]] and food hoarding into crimes against the government, [[French First Republic|Revolutionary France]] had limited success. With respect to its overt intention, that of ensuring the people were able to purchase food at a reasonable rate, the Maximum was mostly a failure.  Some merchants having found themselves forced into a position to sell their goods for a price below cost (e.g. cost of baking [[bread]] or growing [[vegetable]]s) chose to hide their expensive goods from the market, either for personal use or for sale on the [[black market]];<ref>Darrow, M. "Economic Terror in the City: The General Maximum in Montauban." ''French Historical Studies'' 1991, pp. 517–19</ref> however, the General Maximum was very successful in deflecting a volatile political issue away from the [[Committee of Public Safety]] and [[Maximilien Robespierre]], enabling them to focus on larger political issues more closely related to completing the French Revolution.<ref>Darrow, M. "Economic Terror in the City: The General Maximum in Montauban." ''French Historical Studies'' 1991, pp. 523–25</ref>

By creating the General Maximum, Robespierre shifted the attention of the French people away from government involvement in widespread shortages of money and food to a fight between consumers and merchants.  The text of the General Maximum was written towards businessmen who were profiting on a large scale from the demise of the French economy. In practice, the law ultimately targeted local shopkeepers, butchers, bakers, and farmers-the merchants who were profiting the least from the economic crisis.<ref>Darrow, M. "Economic Terror in the City: The General Maximum in Montauban." ''French Historical Studies'' 1991, pp. 503–05</ref> With the General Maximum, Robespierre offered the people an answer regarding whom to blame for their poverty and their hunger. Furthermore, considering its association with the [[Law of Suspects]], when a citizen informed the government about a merchant who was in violation of the law, they were considered to have done their civic duty.<ref>Darrow, M. "Economic Terror in the City: The General Maximum in Montauban." ''French Historical Studies'' 1991, p. 511</ref>