Dieppe meant "deep" in Anglo-Saxon.
Though no one knew why it had been given that name, it was an excellent port, and with the new gravel road, there were even more travelers than before. They had no choice but to slow down, moving as sluggishly as the large freight wagons.
The wagons carried cheese, cotton, grain, wine, fruit and vegetables, fish, and white sugar. Looking at the dazzling array of goods, Georgiana sensed the atmosphere of a bountiful harvest. The country folk chatting with them were quite talkative as well.
Most of them worked in Dieppe, where there were shipyards and docks. The men worked at the docks and shipyards, while their wives and children carded cotton and spun thread at home. It was all piecework. They brought the finished goods to the workshops by the harbor, both to supplement the household income and to buy necessities in town. They complained that salt was becoming less and less salty.
Napoleon had raised the salt tax, but instead of sending tax collectors to every household to taste the dishes in their pots and see whether they were salty, as had been done before, he had started at the source and collected taxes from salt merchants.
If the merchants raised their prices, everyone would know that the indirect tax had been passed on to consumers. So they used the old method. Table salt had originally been produced in the west, and some families worked in the salt fields. After bringing home unadulterated salt and comparing it, they discovered that the salt sold in shops was so bland it was nearly tasteless. Still, they only grumbled a few times. They could make some coarse sea salt themselves, after all. The sea had no fences.
Generally speaking, they still preferred peace. Life in peacetime