Citizen Wheat

Question 1

Book: What is the chromosomal make up of bread wheat?

Answer 1

Hexaploid AABBDD

Question 2

Book: What wheat is the dominant type grown?

Answer 2

Triticum aestivum (makes up 90% of worlds production)

Question 3

What did France not get on board with that other nations (England and the Dutch) did? What are some examples of this?

Answer 3

Missed the “agricultural innovations” boat. Things like:

• 4 field crop rotation where one field always seeded with meadow plants to replenish soil
• Seed drills replace seeding by hand

Question 4

What is the crop yield in seeds planted:harvested for a 2 field crop system? What about a 3 field system? A 4 field system?

Answer 4

2 field = 1:3
3 field = 1:3
4 field = 1:10 (geez I wonder which is best)

Question 5

What did the French call the English (Citizen wheat lecture)? Why?

Answer 5

English were getting fat because of their agricultural innovations. French began calling them “les rosbifs” (the roasts).

Question 6

Between 1500-1795, wheat was no.1 in the French economy. How much of the GDP was from wheat?

Answer 6

1/3-1/2 of France’s GDP.

Question 7

Between 1500-1800, how much bread did the average French person consume in a day? What about in 2000? (answer in grams/person/day)

Answer 7

1500-1800: 1200g/person/day

2000: 165g/person/day

Question 8

How big was the standard French loaf of bread in 1790 compared with now?

Answer 8

Now: 1 lbs
Then: 4.1 lbs !

Question 9

How did France get enough wheat to feed its population? Why was this a problem?

Answer 9

Had to import wheat from Russia/Ukraine. Famines were frequent.

Question 10

How many nationwide famines were there in France between 1610-1715?

Answer 10

10.

Question 11

How many “bread riots” in Aquitaine between 1590-1715?

Answer 11

500.

Question 12

How did the French government traditionally solve food shortages? Why was this not a great idea?

Answer 12

By emptying the granaries. No incentive to improve production because every time shortages occurred the market prices crashed because of large influx.

Question 13

Besides their policy of emptying the granaries, what other 3 factors contributed to France’s wheat problems?

Answer 13

1. Poor road infrastructure
2. Crippling internal tolls/taxes
3. Wind/water mills couldn’t always function

Question 14

What did the physiocrats (economists) of 1700s France propose might help solve the wheat shortage problem? What were the results of this?

Answer 14

A “laissez-faire” market of unchecked capitalism. Initially there were riots, but then a steady improvement.

Question 15

What 3 factors contributed to the 1788 bread price increase in France? What was the price before? What did it increase to? (in sous/lb)

Answer 15

1. Poor crop, spring hail
2. Summer drought = no milling
3. Winter, Seine freezes = no milling
   Went up from 2 sous/lb to 3 sous/lb

Question 16

What shortage-related event occurred in France on July 14, 1789?

Answer 16

Mobs storm the Bastille and the granaries, stealing weapons and grain. Foulon (finance guy) decapitated and had head stuffed with shit and grass. Millers and bakers were attacked.

Question 17

Why was the French government unable to alleviate the 1789 riots with imported wheat?

Answer 17

Russia (the usual supplier) was at war in the North and South and wouldn’t sell any grain to France.

Question 18

After the storming of the Bastille and the looting of granaries, bread prices in France rose from 3 sous/lb to ______.

Answer 18

3.75 sous/lb (7.5 sous/person/day)!

Question 19

What likely caused the French “Bread Crisis” of 1793? What event was this the beginning of?

Answer 19

The new revolutionary government needed money for war so they printed it, causing massive inflation and a 40% increase in bread prices. The resulting riots led to the beginning of “the Terror”.

Question 20

Regarding wheat and bread distribution, what resulted from “the Terror”?

Answer 20

~16 600 death sentences, mostly for hoarding, along with a reinstatement of shortage controls (empty the granaries).

Question 21

What did the French make to survive the 1794-1795 famine in Paris?

Answer 21

Made “starvation bread” from pea meal and chestnut. Also ate the zoo animals.

Question 22

Did the bread shortages cause the anger in France?

Answer 22

No it just contributed