Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Chronology
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The fiscal crisis
- 2 The French economy at the end of the ‘Ancien Régime’
- 3 1789
- 4 The ‘assignats’
- 5 The finances of the Constituent Assembly
- 6 The rising cost of living, anarchy and war
- 7 The seizure of power by the Mountain
- 8 Economic dictatorship
- 9 ‘Dirigisme’ in retreat
- 10 The French Revolution: economic considerations
- Appendices
- I The final budget of the Ancien Régime
- II The grain trade
- III The life of Dupont de Nemours
- IV The value of the bids made for biens nationaux
- V Econometric study of the depreciation of the assignats
- Notes
- Select guide to further reading
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Chronology
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The fiscal crisis
- 2 The French economy at the end of the ‘Ancien Régime’
- 3 1789
- 4 The ‘assignats’
- 5 The finances of the Constituent Assembly
- 6 The rising cost of living, anarchy and war
- 7 The seizure of power by the Mountain
- 8 Economic dictatorship
- 9 ‘Dirigisme’ in retreat
- 10 The French Revolution: economic considerations
- Appendices
- I The final budget of the Ancien Régime
- II The grain trade
- III The life of Dupont de Nemours
- IV The value of the bids made for biens nationaux
- V Econometric study of the depreciation of the assignats
- Notes
- Select guide to further reading
- Index
Summary
Under the Ancien Régime, regulation of the grain trade undoubtedly checked the development of agricultural production. Although the Physiocrats had pointed out just how damaging such regulation was, the general populace was not aware of this. So much was this the case that, during the Revolution, when a catastrophic economic policy brought about a serious subsistence crisis, the patriots called for a return to the old price controls.
Marcel Marion, in his Dictionnaire des institutions de la France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siécles, under the heading ‘Grain trade’, gave the following description of these controls:
Under the Ancien Régime, famine was an ever-present threat, because of the low levels of production of the soil, difficulties in communication, and the paramount importance of bread in the diet of the less well-to-do classes, especially in the towns.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The French RevolutionAn Economic Interpretation, pp. 198 - 199Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990