On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille.
If not for Goebel's intelligence, she never would have imagined connecting it to lowering the canal's water level.
Bonaparte had tried it while in Egypt. Whether boiled or stir-fried, wheat was unpalatable. It could only be eaten after being ground into flour and made into bread.
If something went wrong in either of those final two stages, then having flour would be of no use. The small amount of bread supplied by bakeries would naturally soar in price.
Because Paris had kept as many small bakeries alive as possible, more bread could be supplied. Dockworkers lost their jobs when the canals froze. These workers were bound by guilds, and at such times, to make a living, they also worked as carpenters, bricklayers, or plasterers. Their first customers were city residents, including bakers, before traveling merchants.
A city would not be made up entirely of locals. There was also a floating population, and they usually rented housing...
Her head ached so badly that she could barely think. If Étampes, the flour-processing center, shut down because of water shortages, Paris would directly face soaring bread prices. She took out the letter she had already packed and addressed to Brongniart.
If one day the people of Paris were truly unlucky, and not only did the water freeze but there was no wind either, then neither windmills nor watermills could be used. They would have to rely on animal power, or steam engines. That was the engineers' work.
She stopped using the typewriter for the rest of the letter and wrote it by hand instead. As for that proposal, she felt it was better not to submit it so easily.
If she learned that her plan had been crumpled into wastepaper and thrown