Bread Riots as a cause of the French Revolution Essay

Thomas Paines Rights of Man banned Paine condemned in ab directia (he is in France) for high treason. The British government, headed by Prime Minister Pitt, begins to check-out procedure any angiotensin converting enzyme publishing anything criticizing the government. William Godwin publishes Political Justice, a huge philosophical tract that argues Paines case from a theoretical point of view. Godwin is non impris stard by and large because his books price (forty times the price of Paines) means it is not read by the wrong people. Wordsworth writes the Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, in which he declares himself one of those odious people cal conduct democrats, but never publishes it (likely because he feared prosecution). 1793 also sees the characterization of the Traitorous Correspondence Bill, which empowered the state to open and read the magnificent Mail.While some nippers could at least hope that they would grow seemly grain to cover the money owed to their landlords a nd the government and provide food for their family, the urban poor who, if not unemployed, overworked primarily in factories and shopswere dependent on the affordability and availableness of pre-baked bread. In the summer of 1787, a four-pound loaf, both of which were required daily to hunt a family of four, cost eight sous. Due in large actuate to poor weather and low crop yields, by February 1789 the price had most doubled to fifteen sous. In his book Citizens A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Simon Schama notes The average daily wage of a manual laborer was between twenty and thirty sous, of a journeyman mason at most forty.The stunt man of bread pricesand of firewoodspelled destitution. urban workers, especially those in Paris, started to protest the price of bread. When two Parisian manufacturers, Rveillon and Henriot, suggested in late April 1789 that the distribution of bread should be deregulated, thereby lowering prices and reducing both wages and costs of produ ction, riots ensued. Laborersnot only those who worked for bakerstook violent action against Rveillon and Henriot because they feared that other employers would use decreased bread prices as an excuse to cut their sustain workers wages.For some women, however, gathering together to discuss politics with leading philosophers or writing revolutionist pamphlets was hardly practical. To the poorer women in Paris, access to affordable bread was the most beta full. In October 1789 a large group of poor women marched to Versailles, the royal castling situated twelve miles beyond the capital, to demand bread, as supplies were particular deep down the city. Upon reaching the palace, a small delegation of women was granted an audience with power Louis XVI. The women eventually convinced the monarch to sign decrees agreeing to provide Paris with qualified stores of affordable bread.The modest gains by the urban poor also turn out short-lived. The decade-long revolution, which co incided with several wars against European foes, wracked Frances already vulnerable economy. Affordable foodstuffs act to be a problem for urban families. Despite the riots and the efforts of the Convention to batten adequate provisions for the urban poor, the high cost of bread remained a problem. In 1792 hoarding caused a rise in the cost of sugar. Levy, Applewhite, and Johnson explain, Speculators hoarded gigantic stores of colonial products such as sugar, coffee, and tea in expectation of next profits from depleted sup- plies. Concerns over unequal allocations of eggs and butter led to riots in 1793. Urban workers lost the economic power they had gained when the National multitude passed the Le Chapelier law in 1791, which prohibited all workers coalitions and assemblies. A phratry 1793 law placed limits on wages. Freedom from hunger and want had been the right sought most fervently by the urban poor, but it was a right they were unable to enjoy.For peasants, change came swiftly and violently. In July 1789 France was wracked by what became cognise as the Great Fear. On the fourteenth of that month, a riot at the Bastille, a Paris prison and armory, had resulted in the death of more than one hundred people. The riot began when the citizens of Parisfearful that troops recently sent to the city by King Louis XVI might decide to bang the populacebegan collecting weapons at the Bastille. Similar uprisings against the government followed. Rural citizens began earreach rumors that King Louis XVI was ordering his troops into the French countryside to stanch peasant rebellions. Fearful peasants began burning and pillaging manors, destroying feudal records, and reclaiming what had previously been common land.On August 4, 1789, worried that these demonstrations would not cease, the nations nobles agreed to pop off up most of their feudal rights. This decision was codified one calendar week later by the National Assembly. Peasants were now free to earn their own wages, unencumbered by feudal tithes the economic element of human rights was sightly a reality for the nations rural poor. The economic freedoms for urban laborers also widened during the revolution. The abolishment of guilds allowed artisans more oppor- tunities to find jobs, unburdened by a complicated hierarchical system. Workshops established throughout cities were sources of employment for poor women. Urban laborers frequently went on strike, with higher wages a common result. dinero became more affordable in 1793, the price of a loaf was sise sous.The urban and rural poor were also affected under piles rule. Napoleon continued the ban on trade unions and introduced passbooks, which limited the ability of urban workers to move freely about the nation. However, he did machinate maximum prices for bread and flour, thus reducing the threat of either hunger or bread riots. According to Robert B. Holtman, author of The Napoleonic Revolution, peasants did not inesca pably fare badly under Napoleon, as he maintained the work the revolutionaries had done (namely, abolishing feudalism). However, other scholars have asserted that Napoleon was largely uninterested in social and economic reforms that would improve the quality of life for his poorer subjects.