Cereals and Social Stability. A Note on 18th Century Britain

The essay addresses the political implications of popular disturbances occasioned by the waves of bad harvests and periodic grain shortages in Britain during the XVIIIth century. The debate and the documents of the time do not seem to validate the critical hypotheses connected with the Foucaultian idea of governmentality or with the Smithian defence of free trade in grain. More fruitful are the theses of E.P. Thompson and J. Bohstedt, both related to the relationship between subsistence, deference and social stability. Measures relating to "spirituous liquors" and popular reaction to them are also considered.