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In the Seine-et-Oise district, the need to feed large armies for months on end justified the high cost and the heavy burden of such an occupation falling on civilians. Of the entire population, farmers and day laborers were the most heavily put upon. However, good crops in 1814 and 1815 and the fact that a majority of the taxed communities were also the richest ones explain to a large degree why the district recovered so rapidly from such hardship. However, people were deeply affected by the related violence and by the sight of waste on such a scale. Yet the civilian population was able to reduce the costs of wars by negotiating directly with the nobles and by requesting them to intervene on their behalf.