Chapter 1 - The Political Economy of Meat

Summary

On October 5, 1789, the women of the central Parisian marketplace, Les Halles, marched all night to Versailles to “bring home the baker.” These self-elected representatives of the working poor took action to remedy what to them was a political crisis: The price of bread and meat had risen beyond what was just, and their king had neglected one of his primary duties to ensure the subsistence of his people. This popular initiative pointed to the political necessity of food staples, an urgent need that required direct confrontation with the head of state. Once in Versailles, they made their demands clear to Louis XVI (r. 1774–1792) and subsequently the National Assembly. The assembly responded with decrees prohibiting the export of grain, setting the price of wheat at 24 livres a muid and the price of meat at no more than 8 sous a pound. A flower seller in the Palais Royal district, who claimed to be the head of the band of women, said that she had a private audience with the king, who, having sanctioned the assembly's decrees, embraced her and sought that she and her fatigued and hungry compatriots return to Paris by royal coach. Interestingly enough, these women were satisfied only when their monarch (known to Parisians as the great provisioner) agreed to return with them to liberate Paris from the future designs of the aristocracy and, most importantly, to feed them. Faced with these demands, the king responded by accommodating the crowd, which included male volunteers of the Bastille, Lafayette, and the National Guard, with “all the bread and meat that could be had.”