The causes of the French Revolution are complex and still widely debated among historians. However, many scholars agree that food played an important role in the socio-political upheaval. 31
A main component in the French daily meal, bread was often tied up with the national identity. Studies show that the average 18th-century French worker spent half his daily wage on bread. In 1788 and 1789, however, when the grain crops failed two years in a row, the price of bread shot up to 88 percent of his earnings. 32 The great majority of the French population was starving. Some even resorted to theft or prostitution to stay alive.
33 Started in the 15th century, this tax on salt consumption was applied particularly to the poor, while the nobility and the privileged were exempted. The high rate and unequal distribution of the tax provoked widespread illegal dealing in salt by smugglers, leading to skyrocketing salt prices.
However, the royal court at Versailles was isolated from and indifferent to the escalating crisis. The desperate population thus blamed the ruling class for the famine and economic disturbances. 34 The results include the storming of the Bastille, a medieval fortress and prison in Paris, and the eventual beheading of King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette.
35 Yet, the gabelle and the “bread question” remained among the most unsettling social and political issues throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods (1789-1815) and well beyond.
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