The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, c. 15501850 (The History of Retailing and Consumption)

Food marketing and consumption were matters of politics as much as economics as England became a market society. In time of dearth, concatenations of riots, repression, and relief created a politics of provisions that matured over England's long eighteenth century. In exploring the dynamics of negotiations over subsistence during industrial revolution and political evolution, this book also sheds light on wars and famines in modern world history. Over three centuries, some eight hundred food riots crackled in waves across England. This study argues that, so far from shaking social equilibrium, they contributed to its resilience. Crowds seized wagons, attacked mills and granaries, and lowered prices in marketplaces or farmyards. Sometimes rioters parleyed with magistrates. More often both acted out a well-rehearsed political minuet: similar negotiations can be traced back to Tudor risings and policies when harvests failed. Occasionally troops killed rioters, or judges condemned them to the gallows, but increasingly riots prompted wealthy citizens to procure relief supplies. Thus 'provision politics' comprises both customary negotiations about hunger, and 'negotiations' of the social vessel through the turbulence of dearth. This pioneering analysis of three centuries of provision politics connects a generation of studies of popular protest spawned by E.P. Thompson's seminal essay on the 'moral economy' with new work on economic history and state formation. It will prove essential reading for anyone with an interest in the social, political and economic transitions of early-modern England. The elemental power of food politics has not been fully appraised. Food marketing and consumption were matters of politics as much as economics as England became a market society. In times of dearth, concatenations of food riots, repression, and relief created a maturing politics of provisions. Over three centuries, some eight hundred riots crackled in waves across England. Crowds seized wagons, attacked mills and granaries, and lowered prices in marketplaces or farmyards. Sometimes rioters parleyed with magistrates. More often both acted out a well-rehearsed political minuet that evolved from Tudor risings and state policies down to a complex culmination during the Napoleonic Wars. 'Provision politics' thus comprised both customary negotiations over scarcity and hunger, and 'negotiations' of the social vessel through the turbulence of dearth. Occasionally troops killed rioters, or judges condemned them to the gallows, but increasingly riots prompted wealthy citizens to procure relief supplies. In short, food riots worked: in a sense they were a first draft of the welfare state. This pioneering analysis connects a generation of social protest studies spawned by E.P. Thompson's essay on the 'moral economy' with new work on economic history and state formation. The dynamics of provision politics that emerged during England's social, economic and political transformations should furnish fruitful models for analyses of 'total war' and famine as well as broader transitions elsewhere in world history. The 'politics of provisions' - forceful negotiations over sustenance - has created surprising contests in world history, particularly in times of market transition. In England a 'politics of provisions' evolved in a dialogue between popular riots and paternalist subsistence policies from Tudor dearths to the Victorian embrace of free-market doctrines. Hence provision politics was a core ingredient of both state-formation and of the emergence of the first market economy and society in England. This book is the first full-scale critical revision of E.P. Thompson's seminal model of the 'moral eco We'd Rather Be Hanged Than Starved! : The Politics Of Provisions -- The Genesis Of Provision Politics, 1527-1660 -- The Recession Of Provision Politics, 1660-1739 : A Political Nation Of Producers -- Bolting Mills And Marketplaces : The Formative Generation Of The Politics Of Provisions, 1740-1772 -- A Viable, But Doomed, Provision Politics, 1783-1812 -- The Decadence Of The Politics Of Provisions, 1812-67 -- Conclusions : Provision Politics From The Book Of Orders To World War I. John Bohstedt. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [279]-307) And Index. We'd rather be hanged than starved! : the politics of provisions The genesis of provision politics, 1527-1660 The recession of provision politics, 1660-1740 The formative generation of the politics of provisions, 1740-1772 A viable, but doomed, provision politics, 1783-1812 The decadence of the politics of provisions, 1812-67 Conclusions : provision politics from the book of orders to World War One.