Bread seizures

Since the European states had begun to soften their methods within Europe itself, and also succeeded in co-opting the local upper classes into various public posts, it became both less necessary and less successful to attack the state directly by force to prevent tax collection. That tradition therefore ended in Europe around 1650 – but continued, of course, in the occupied countries in other parts of the world where the conditions continued to prevail.

Instead, it was the emerging markets that triggered the uprisings, mainly the food markets.

According to traditional moral economy, the price of food should be such that even the poor can afford it. Of course, traders did not take such considerations into account, but allowed the price to reflect supply and demand. When the price became too high, local community often tried to introduce local price freezes, confiscate the food from the merchants and sell it in the market square at the ”regular” price. The money was then handed over neatly to the merchants – if they were not completely unrepentant in which case they used to get a thrashing.

Such local actions often received reluctant support from the authorities as it could be dangerous to be resist them. But the effects were still almost always short-lived and local.

In some cases, however, bread revolts have had world-historical consequences because they were widespread and contemporaneous: in France 1789-94, in Russia 1917-18, and in a number of countries from 1975 onwards.

Reading
E.P. Thompson: Customs in common, The New Press 1993
George Rudé: Paris and London in the 18th century, Collins 1952
John Walton & David Seddon: Free markets & food riots, Blackwell 1994.