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Famine and market in Ancien Régime France

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  • Jean-Michel Chevet
  • Cormac Ó Gráda

Abstract

How—and how well—do food markets function in famine conditions? The controversy surrounding this question may benefit from historical perspective. Here we study two massive famines that struck France between 1693 and 1710, killing over two million people. In both cases the impact of harvest failure was exacerbated by wartime demands on the food supply; we ask whether the crises were exacerbated yet further by a failure of markets to function as they did in normal times. The evidence, we conclude, is most consistent with the view that markets in fact helped alleviate these crises, albeit modestly.

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  • Jean-Michel Chevet & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2002. "Famine and market in Ancien Régime France," Open Access publications 10197/368, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/368
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/368
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Grantham, George, 1989. "Jean Meuvret and the Subsistence Problem in Early Modern France," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 184-200, March.
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    4. Weir, David R., 1984. "Life Under Pressure: France and England, 1670–1870," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 27-47, March.
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    6. Rashid, Salim, 1980. "The Policy of Laissez-Faire during Scarcities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(3593), pages 493-503, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Cassidy & Nick Hanley, 2022. "Union, border effects, and market integration in Britain," Working Papers 0228, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    2. Stef Espeel, 2024. "Driven by crises: Price integration on the grain market in late medieval Flanders," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(3), pages 849-872, August.
    3. Studer, Roman, 2008. "India and the Great Divergence: Assessing the Efficiency of Grain Markets in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 393-437, June.
    4. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2007. "Famines and Markets," Working Papers 200720, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2007. "Making Famine History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 5-38, March.
    6. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2018. "The Next World and the New World: Relief, Migration, and the Great Irish Famine," Working Papers 201821, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    7. Le Bris, David & Tallec, Ronan, 2021. "The European Marriage Pattern and its Positive Consequences Montesquieu-Volvestre, 1660-1789," MPRA Paper 105324, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Cannon, Edmund & Brunt, Liam, 2013. "Integration in the English wheat market 1770-1820," CEPR Discussion Papers 9504, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Tiia‐Maria Pasanen & Miikka Voutilainen & Jouni Helske & Harri Högmander, 2022. "A Bayesian spatio‐temporal analysis of markets during the Finnish 1860s famine," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1282-1302, November.
    10. David Bris & Ronan Tallec, 2023. "The European marriage pattern and the sensitivity of female age at marriage to economic context. Montesquieu-Volvestre, 1660–1789," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(2), pages 187-231, May.
    11. Ogilvie, Sheilagh & Carus, A.W., 2014. "Institutions and Economic Growth in Historical Perspective," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 403-513, Elsevier.

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    Keywords

    Famines--France; Food supply--France;

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