The Revolutionary Temper

Revolution swept across the world through the 18th century. The American Revolution did not happen in a vacuum, and much like the cities of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston experienced unique buildups to revolution, so too did Paris. Each city and community was unique, but some changes and themes transcended imperial borders to encompass both Britain’s North American colonies and France. The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 offers us a unique look into the simmering issues which pushed the people in the French capital to overthrow the king. That city’s revolutionary experience, in no small part, had much to do with what happened on the other side of the Atlantic from 1775 to 1783. 

Within Paris, the people of both higher and lower orders watched as scandals rocked the capital, and, more importantly, the court in nearby Versailles. Clashes over King Louis XV’s many romances, religious power and schisms within the various sects which operated in Paris, foreign wars, the marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, lavish royal spending, and famine all contributed to the boiling Parisian cauldron which would spill over in the summer of 1789.  

Excerpt

“On March 8, 1775, Hardy noted a danger signal: The price of the four-pound loaf in Paris, which had remained stable at 11 sous for the last ten months, had risen to 11 sous, 6 deniers. On March 1st, it reached 12 sous, causing "huge grumbling among the common people, who were said to say quite openly in the marketplaces: "What a rotten reign."" On April 12, it rose to 12 sous, 6 deniers, and the menu peuple blamed the increase on the government. On April 15, it reached 13 sous. The bakers complained that they could not get enough flour, while the common people attributed the scarcity to a government plot. This was the beginning of the soudure, the period when last year's stock of grain was being depleted, and the new harvest had not yet arrived. On April 26, the price rose to 13 sous, 6 deniers, and Parisians learned that "emotions" had erupted in several cities. In Dijon, a crowd broke into the home of a miller who was believed to be a grain monopolizer. After smashing his furniture, the rioters stormed his mill and seized all the available grain and flour. Forty of them were arrested. 

Prices rose so drastically in Montauban that the intendant ordered farmers to supply the local market, in violation of Turgot's edict. And the high prices provoked such "fermentation" in Reims, where Louis XVI was to be crowned on June 11, that Hardy expected the coronation to be postponed. (It wasn't, although seditious posters appeared in the streets after a rumor spread that the king was hoarding bread in order to profit from the dearth.) 

By May 1, word arrived that the epidemic of violence was approaching Paris? Large crowds sacked grain from boats in Pointoise that were transporting provisions to the capital. Rioters in Saint Germain en Laye threw four into the streets as a sign of defiance. And on May 2 an uprising in Versailles, a city of 50,000 inhabitants, seemed for a moment to threaten the king. According to some reports, Louis XVI appeared on a balcony of the palace and after failing to calm the crowd appeased it by ordering bread to be sold on the local market at 2 sous per pound. (In other versions the order was given by the captain of his guards.).

Darnton, Robert. The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023) pg. 172.