1 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:13,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to it could happen here the podcast that just 2 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: happened here? All right, that's my by part done, Chris. 3 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: What are we? What are we talking about today? I 4 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:24,639 Speaker 1: have brought you all here today to discuss one of 5 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: the most sacred and variable of our political institutions, an 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: institution whose words echo through history and carved the political, legal, 7 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 1: and economic framework of our world. I am referring, of course, 8 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,280 Speaker 1: to the bread riot. Hey, there we go, a little 9 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: good bread riot. I do too. This is this is 10 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: a good a non zero part of why I wrote 11 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,880 Speaker 1: this episode. How How is this? How is this relatable? 12 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: The grain supplies seems really stable? Right now? It's everyone, 13 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:53,599 Speaker 1: no one. No one has thrown a ball top through 14 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: a bank window in two hundred years. I was. I 15 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: was reliably informed by several mark His historians that that 16 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: bread riots were over. I'm gonna I'm gonna google Ukrainian 17 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: wheat harvest as I do every exactly five years. The 18 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: moment just now came up where where I check it 19 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:21,279 Speaker 1: every five years. Let me just uh, is there a problem? Well, 20 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: let me go eat my fifth wonder bread slice of 21 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: the day and not think about it. Good stuff, all right? 22 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: So Yeah, let's talk bread riots. Yeah, we're talking bead riots. 23 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: So bread riots are an ancient institution. Um, you can, 24 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: I mean, you can find them like very easily as 25 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: far back as the Roman Republic of Roman Republican policy 26 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: bread like Okay, if you wanted to like go further 27 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: back then that, I have no doubt you could like 28 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: spend probably ten minutes and find bread rioting in like 29 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: Sumeria or something. I didn't do this. And the reason 30 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: I didn't do this, even though I'm talking about the 31 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: history of the bread riot, is that the sort of 32 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: the structure of the bread riot is shaped inexorably by 33 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: the sort of political and economic conditions around it, and 34 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: the political economic conditions of ancient Rome are somewhat similar 35 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: to us, but not really. So instead of doing that, 36 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,119 Speaker 1: we're starting in the late seventeen hundreds, where there are 37 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,640 Speaker 1: a lot of bread riots, but particularly there's a lot 38 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: of very well documented bread riots in the UK and France. 39 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: And I guess but before we actually like talk about 40 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: these specific riots, we should you should talk about what 41 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 1: a bread right actually is because okay, so I mean, 42 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 1: on a very superficial level, of bread riot is when 43 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: people don't have bread and they riot. But the actual 44 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: response to that and what the riots look like are 45 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: interesting and sort of complicated. Um. I'm going to quote 46 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: now from the book Free Markets and Food Riots. This 47 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: is just talking about specifically the sevente hundreds riots. But yeah, 48 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: food riots took several forms. A proplicator and trade that 49 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: prevented the export of grain from an area in which 50 00:02:55,280 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: shortages existed. Be the price riot or taxation popularity in 51 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,400 Speaker 1: which food was seized by protesters, a just price set 52 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:07,280 Speaker 1: and the lot sold see agrarian demonstrations in which farmers 53 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,640 Speaker 1: destroyed their own produces, a dramatic protest, and deed, the 54 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: market right, in which the crowd took me retribute of 55 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: action against commercial agents, bakers and millers, local magistrates in 56 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: the form of looting or tumultuous assembly to force dealers 57 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:23,679 Speaker 1: and local authorities to reduce prices. So, okay, there's a 58 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: lot of different things going on here. We're going to 59 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: get back to the farmers protest stuff like a lot 60 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: later because the specific kind of like rural like versions 61 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: of this kind of fading into the background for a 62 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: couple of centuries. Um, what's happening to the urban centers 63 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: that was really interesting in a lot of ways, and 64 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:41,360 Speaker 1: it gets at the core of of what's going on 65 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: in these sort of like late santeen hundreds riots. Um. Notably, 66 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: the crowds who are doing the rioting are just like 67 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: they're not just like seizing the bread and eating it, 68 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: which is the thing that like you would assume they 69 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: would be doing if they were you know, it's a 70 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: bunch of people who are starving and there's bread and 71 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: they take it, right, But that's that's actually not what 72 00:03:57,120 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: they're doing. What they're doing is essentially negotiating over price. 73 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: You see this in the sort of price riot thing, right. 74 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: You know, the thing that they actually do is they 75 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:06,640 Speaker 1: seize a bunch of grain and then they sell it 76 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: off at what they sort of like and what they 77 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: deem a fair price is. And you know what what 78 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,119 Speaker 1: this is the something to do basically is it's it's 79 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 1: a it's a very very direct way of trying to 80 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,360 Speaker 1: get bakers to lower their prices. And the other thing 81 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,159 Speaker 1: that's about these riots is that they are they're they're 82 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: very politically sophisticated, and they're they're very targeted. Um, there's 83 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 1: the thing you hear a lot and if if you 84 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 1: ever read anything about any modern riot, you will hear 85 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,600 Speaker 1: just people ranting about how people are destroying blindly destroying 86 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,279 Speaker 1: their own neighborhoods, and it's it's just like not true. 87 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:44,840 Speaker 1: Riots tend to have sort of riots tend to have 88 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: a sort of political specific political focus and attacking specific targets, 89 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:50,280 Speaker 1: which is why, like, you know, the first things that 90 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 1: go up in a riot are pawnshops, liquor stores, police stations, 91 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: and now stores that think they're employed badly. They literally 92 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: have specific targets. Yeah, yeah, like it it's you know, 93 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: it's it's it's very like all all of all of 94 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: the stuff that's happening is stuff that has like it's 95 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: the result of political grievances that people have sort of 96 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: been accumulating for a long time. And this is also 97 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 1: true of these sort of of these early bread riots. 98 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: To going back to the book free markets and food rights, 99 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:22,040 Speaker 1: protesters did not rampage indiscriminately, but focus their wrath in 100 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,480 Speaker 1: particular individuals and institutions whom the crowd held responsible for 101 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: unjust practices. Typically, it was not the producers or retailers 102 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: of food, but the middlemen who were seen as responsible 103 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: for shortages and price raises. The grain dealers, wholesalers, speculators, 104 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: and mills. Grain shipments by wagons, ship and canal bars 105 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: were seized and distributed among participants are sold at a 106 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: just price. Warehouses were rated with similar results. Textile workers 107 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy reams quote sees the talents markets proceeded 108 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:52,840 Speaker 1: to sell all the grain in the market at three 109 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:55,520 Speaker 1: quarters of the current price. They then turned their attention 110 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: to the warehouse into the grain arraies of numerous religious houses, 111 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: which they treated in a similar fashion. Yeah, and so 112 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: you know, like this this this is like this is 113 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:05,440 Speaker 1: a pretty remarkable degree of political sophistication right there. They're 114 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: not targeting sort of farmers or bakers, and especially not 115 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: targeting people who are like well known like in the community. 116 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 1: They're targeting people who they can directly tie it to 117 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,359 Speaker 1: too grand price speculation. And this is you know, in 118 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 1: someone says like this, this is a demonstration of the 119 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:21,000 Speaker 1: kind of like basic contradiction of the market. Right on 120 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: the one hand, you have bread as this like physical 121 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: thing that you need to survive. On the other hand, 122 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:28,279 Speaker 1: you have bread as this market commodity, and the market 123 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: you know, as a market commodity. It's a sort of 124 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: speculative asset which people are like buying and selling and 125 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: hoarding like stocks, because not because they actually need to 126 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: eat it, but because they're interested in this sort of 127 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:41,200 Speaker 1: market value. And the Marxists will call this the difference 128 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:43,040 Speaker 1: between the use value or like the value you get 129 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:45,279 Speaker 1: from eating a piece of bread and the exchange value, 130 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: which is like the bread is a commodity that could 131 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: be traded for the commodities, and you know, and like 132 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:51,520 Speaker 1: this is this is in some times, like this is 133 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:53,920 Speaker 1: behind a lot of like the housing crisis right now. 134 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 1: You have a bunch of people who buy houses and 135 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: apartment buildings that you know, not because they need to 136 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: live in them, but as an asset that will appreciate 137 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 1: over time, you know, like appreciating value over time like 138 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: stocks do. But this means that people who like need 139 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: houses to like live in them, like, don't get a 140 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:11,480 Speaker 1: house because they're being held by people who are trying 141 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: to get their value to appreciate. And the goal of 142 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: these riots is basically to prevent bread from becoming an 143 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: exchange value, that is to sort of like market commodity 144 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:23,480 Speaker 1: user speculation and turn their back into use values. But 145 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: even again here this is interesting, right because it's not 146 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:29,240 Speaker 1: like these people are like like like anti market, anti capitalists, right, 147 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,440 Speaker 1: they tend not to sort of just seize the bread 148 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: out right. What they're doing is they they're insisting on 149 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:39,600 Speaker 1: buying it at a specific quote unquote just price. And 150 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: this this sort of gets into the question of, like, 151 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: why are these riots happening in the first place. Um. 152 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: The obvious explanation like, Okay, the people are rioting because 153 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,240 Speaker 1: the price of bread is increasing. But that's that's not 154 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 1: actually like an explanation, right, It's just it's a precondition. 155 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: But there's a lot of places where bread price is rising, 156 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: you'd never get a riot. So a lot of people 157 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 1: have studied this and try to figure out what is happening. 158 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 1: The second explanation that historians come up with something called 159 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: the moral economy, um and and and in this model, 160 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: people aren't just reacting to like a price increase, but 161 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: what they're actually reacting to is what becomes known as 162 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,320 Speaker 1: the entitlement gap, which is this gap between people what 163 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: people think they're entitled to based on the morality and 164 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: how hard they work, like what they actually get. And 165 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: so you know, in less academic language, it's people going 166 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: like I'm getting price gouged. This is bullshit. Bring the 167 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 1: prices down to what they're supposed to be. And you 168 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,080 Speaker 1: know that's part of it. That there's there's another theory 169 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: that argues that food riots are driven by these like 170 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: really complicated are like webs of horizontal social relations and 171 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:44,679 Speaker 1: like things like networks of wives and like political organizations 172 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: and sort of like alliance is to happen inside of 173 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 1: villages stuff like that and that, you know, and then 174 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: these groups sort of like react to price increases by 175 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 1: banding together and voicing people are lower prices. Um. Now, notably, 176 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: I want of the like the things I listened in 177 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: those that like web of things right as wives, net works, 178 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:05,960 Speaker 1: as the sort of like first community weddily as the 179 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 1: food riots. Um and this is this is turns out 180 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,080 Speaker 1: to be important. Women are often like the leaders an 181 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,880 Speaker 1: initiator of bread riots, and the sort of theory behind 182 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: it is that they're actually the ones like buying the 183 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:19,559 Speaker 1: bread and so they're sort of they're more in tune 184 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:23,360 Speaker 1: with disturbances of food prices, etcetera. And you know, the 185 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,680 Speaker 1: food price increases are a threat to what academics called 186 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: social reproduction or an essence like taking care of yourself, 187 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:30,800 Speaker 1: your family, and your household, like making sure you can 188 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:33,679 Speaker 1: sort of support and raise your children. So there's well, 189 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: so the good version of it is it's you're taking 190 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,080 Speaker 1: care of the people around you. The cynical version of 191 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,360 Speaker 1: it is it's social. It's real, it's social reproduction because 192 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:43,320 Speaker 1: you're creating another generation to workers for capital, all right, 193 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,959 Speaker 1: but because women end up doing like enormously disapportionate amount 194 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 1: of that work. Uh, they you know, they wind up 195 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:53,360 Speaker 1: in the streets first because they are the people who 196 00:09:53,400 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: are most acutely sort of like sensitive to this stuff happening. Um, yeah, 197 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,600 Speaker 1: what's what's you know? The and and the other thing 198 00:10:04,679 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: is sort of worth noting here is that riots are 199 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 1: these kind of bread riots are usually urban affairs, and 200 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: they're sort of they're the product of people who live 201 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,960 Speaker 1: in cities, right, it's sort of artisans or industrial workers. 202 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:18,240 Speaker 1: There's this like fighting corps of teenagers who seemed to 203 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 1: show up in all of these bread riots, and thankfully 204 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 1: that that that never happens today. We do not have 205 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 1: a bunch of teenagers show up any time to fight 206 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: the cops and something bad happens. No experience with this, Yeah, 207 00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:37,560 Speaker 1: it's certainly never seen anything like that happened these other countries. 208 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:41,600 Speaker 1: Have the FEDS put piles of bricks out on the street, Well, 209 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: you know this is we have. We haven't. They haven't 210 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 1: gotten to that level of entrapman yet. They're they're not 211 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: powerful enough that this. This is before the development of 212 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,080 Speaker 1: the police state. Yeah, they didn't have an FBI to 213 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:56,360 Speaker 1: burn down the Third Precinct. Yeah, they haven't devented the 214 00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 1: Agent profoctur yet. Cunning false flag. So what's interest thing 215 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: about the century riots? Those? I've been talking a lot 216 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:16,040 Speaker 1: about how these are lived and women, and that's true, 217 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:20,280 Speaker 1: but specifically the ad ones tend to be more gender 218 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: balanced and later riots. And I'm going to read this 219 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:24,599 Speaker 1: from the historian Lynn Taylor because it's it's one of 220 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: the funniest things I've ever read in my life, and 221 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:30,079 Speaker 1: I love it. Cynthia Bolton's study of the French Flower 222 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,520 Speaker 1: War of seven of seventeen seventy five makes clear the 223 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:36,600 Speaker 1: mixed nature of traditional food riots. Indeed, the number of 224 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:39,640 Speaker 1: men involved had increased significantly in the Flower Wars due 225 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:43,840 Speaker 1: to the changing male economic social including familio and political 226 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 1: status dury. In the Ancian regime, there's was a life 227 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,679 Speaker 1: of precarious and declining social economic position. This equilibrium and 228 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,599 Speaker 1: the family structure political alienation, one that left them in 229 00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: position similar to those of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters. 230 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: The men who rioted had in crucial ways been feminized. 231 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:07,800 Speaker 1: Oh boy, before they're writing, because they mean, this is 232 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,680 Speaker 1: a thing that literally happened in uh in Myanmar during 233 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,439 Speaker 1: the uprising, that there are kind of local, local cultural 234 00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:18,320 Speaker 1: sort of attitudes there that make it that have made 235 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:22,839 Speaker 1: it for a long time, like essentially considered like shameful 236 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:28,120 Speaker 1: to touch women's clothing um or particularly like there's certain 237 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:29,920 Speaker 1: things that like you don't wear and that you're not 238 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:32,520 Speaker 1: supposed to look at if you see someone dressed that way, 239 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,760 Speaker 1: um that are like traditional women's clothing. And so a 240 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: bunch of male protesters would dress that way and form 241 00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: up and like ranks at the protests because it made 242 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:45,040 Speaker 1: the police like uncomfortable and sometimes like back off. That's 243 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:48,360 Speaker 1: extremely cool. Yeah, there's like some literal examples of that 244 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:51,800 Speaker 1: very recent riots. Yeah, And I think that gets at 245 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,720 Speaker 1: one of the things that's sort of happening is happening 246 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: in this period too, which is that like one of 247 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: the kinds of things that generates these bread riots is 248 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: this kind of is this instability and gender roles and 249 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 1: is this sort of instability in in what the role 250 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,160 Speaker 1: of a person in society is going to be and 251 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:11,960 Speaker 1: that I don't know, it has a lot of interesting effects. 252 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:14,880 Speaker 1: And when those effects are riots, the stuff that stuff 253 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: that happens is really cool because you get a lot 254 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:20,000 Speaker 1: of sort of like gender roles getting messed up, you 255 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:24,360 Speaker 1: get a lot of like social ties being broken. I guess. 256 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: So the other thing that's going on in this period, 257 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:31,960 Speaker 1: um that is is important because because it's sort of 258 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,920 Speaker 1: like foreshadows a lot of what the sort of later 259 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: bread riots are going to be about. Is that and 260 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:39,880 Speaker 1: this is this is like the fourth theory of bread riots. 261 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: If you sort of like go through your economic historians 262 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: of this stuff. Um they're talking about basically the late 263 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:48,880 Speaker 1: Senti hunters are are one of the sort of key 264 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: moments in like the formation of the modern state. And 265 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:56,440 Speaker 1: what this means in terms of food is that control 266 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,560 Speaker 1: the food supply is mood from these sort of like 267 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: parentalistic like utile state thing where on a local level, 268 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:05,319 Speaker 1: you have guaranteed prices and access to food, and this 269 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 1: has shifted to laws for capitalism, which there is there 270 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: there are there are no price controls. There there's no 271 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:14,320 Speaker 1: guarantee you can get food. And subsequent to this, also 272 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: at the same time is the centralization of the military bureaucracy. 273 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:19,680 Speaker 1: And center relation to the military bureaucracy means that they're 274 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: taking more control of the food supply. Um here here 275 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: from free markets as food riots, again, older parent realistic 276 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 1: models operating at the local level and assuring a preentiful 277 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:32,680 Speaker 1: supply of necessaries at a low price, we're undermined by 278 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: new national policies aimed at greater efficiency and market regulation. 279 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,680 Speaker 1: Spanning a century and more. The policies included such varied 280 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: activities as enclosure, land concentration, capital, intensification of farming, proletarianization, 281 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 1: great exports, taxes, tariffs, at other government efforts to regulate 282 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,480 Speaker 1: the food supply. Price riots were simply one expression of 283 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: popular grievances stemming from this broader change, and this is 284 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:57,880 Speaker 1: something this is something that that's very common. Bread riots 285 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 1: are are like deeply and intimately linked in the with 286 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,480 Speaker 1: the ways that food food productive, food production process is changing, 287 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,480 Speaker 1: and specifically linked to the link to the ways the 288 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: food production process is changing because of the state and markets. 289 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: But we're sort of leading into the late seventeen hundreds 290 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: and at this point something happened that no one expected. 291 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: A bread riot went completely the other direction to irrevocably 292 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: changed the state in the market itself. Um. And I 293 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:30,680 Speaker 1: am talking about histories maybe most famous bread riot. That's right, 294 00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: it's the French Revolution, Baby, Liberty, egalitate, fraternity, han, han 295 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: and this is this is this is what you mean 296 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,800 Speaker 1: to tell me that the French had a revolution. I 297 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: mean it's kind of it's kind of marginal. Admittedly the 298 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 1: same that doesn't sound like the French that I know. 299 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 1: That's true. The modern French have replaced revolution with racism, unfortunately. 300 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:54,280 Speaker 1: But you know, look, look we're we're we're we're in 301 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:58,240 Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds. Things are different. Um. Yeah, and so 302 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 1: we're we're we're in. In a second, we're going to 303 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 1: talk about the red riot that changed the history of 304 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 1: bread rights in the course of world history forever. But first, 305 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:13,440 Speaker 1: do you know who doesn't love bred riots? Yeah? Who 306 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: is the primary sponsor of this show? She realized the 307 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:20,160 Speaker 1: whole cake thing didn't work out great. So now she's saying, 308 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:34,600 Speaker 1: let him a podcasts, let them cast pods. We're back 309 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,320 Speaker 1: and our primary sponsor has been executed by a mob. 310 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: So if you are a member of European nobility to be, 311 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:48,120 Speaker 1: you're a Habsburg you know, um hit us up and 312 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 1: uh offer us a sponsorship. Yeah, well, okay, we we 313 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 1: We're going to rewind a little bit before they kill 314 00:16:54,920 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 1: Mary Antoinette to get to how that happened. So one 315 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 1: of the things if you read the sort of literature 316 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:04,200 Speaker 1: on bread rights, one of the things bread right people 317 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:05,960 Speaker 1: will talk about over and over again is bread rights 318 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: being a political and they kind of like stretch this 319 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:11,760 Speaker 1: to a point, well because I mean okay, so like 320 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 1: there's a couple of levels which doesn't make any sense, right, Like, okay, 321 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: if you think that bread is being sold at too 322 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,280 Speaker 1: high a price because people are are gouging you, that 323 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:23,400 Speaker 1: is political, right, and then you go out and make 324 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: them not do that. Yeah, that's politics. People love to 325 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:31,360 Speaker 1: say things aren't political when they don't align with like 326 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,840 Speaker 1: a simple political party, like if it if it doesn't 327 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: line up directly with the kind of approved debate topics 328 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,000 Speaker 1: between the political parties that dominate things. They like to 329 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,359 Speaker 1: say ship is a political but you know, starving because 330 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:48,920 Speaker 1: of the tax decisions or whatnot is is an inherently 331 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,960 Speaker 1: political thing. Yeah, and and and and deciding that you're 332 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: not going to starve and taking bread from people, it's 333 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,840 Speaker 1: an incredibly political thing. Yeah, that's the politics. Yeah, you 334 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: have done a politicy, I've done You've done a lot 335 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 1: of politics, and you know, but but one of one 336 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:05,399 Speaker 1: of the things that that and the other thing this 337 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:08,280 Speaker 1: leads to is if if if a thing that involves 338 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:12,080 Speaker 1: bread suddenly like turns into capital p politics, and suddenly 339 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 1: you have people doing things that are like well understood 340 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:18,840 Speaker 1: as like commercial political gestures, immediately everyone stops calling it 341 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,400 Speaker 1: a bread right. And if but like, if you look 342 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: at what's actually happening, it's here's a bunch of people 343 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:27,760 Speaker 1: who are mad about the price of bread. Uh, they 344 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,679 Speaker 1: went to change the price of bread. It kind of 345 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,480 Speaker 1: didn't work, and so instead they overthrew the government. And 346 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,120 Speaker 1: this is this is this is this is uh, this 347 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: is the bread right that that we're getting to now 348 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:44,600 Speaker 1: up until you know, up until nine, like you can 349 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:48,760 Speaker 1: argue that like people historians will argue that oh there's bread. Right, 350 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:52,600 Speaker 1: it's a political that just ends in I think it's 351 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:57,600 Speaker 1: October five. But by this point the Fresh Revolution is like, 352 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:00,639 Speaker 1: well underway. Um, they've stolen the bistell Old. There's a 353 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 1: bunch of people in a parliament writing a constitution. But 354 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: like in October of it's still unclear, like how radical 355 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 1: any of this is going to be? Right, Um, at 356 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 1: this point it still seems likely that there's going to 357 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:16,240 Speaker 1: be a king. And not only is there gonna be 358 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:18,080 Speaker 1: a king, the king is starily gonna be pretty strong. 359 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:25,640 Speaker 1: And then yeah, in October, maybe history's most famous bread 360 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:30,159 Speaker 1: right breaks out. So seven thousand women who are like 361 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: incredibly piste off at the high price of bread in 362 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:35,639 Speaker 1: Paris march on Versailles, which is where the Royal family 363 00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 1: of France had been like governing France from for like 364 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,160 Speaker 1: a hundred years. And these women are really really angry 365 00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:45,679 Speaker 1: and they they they basically forced the royal family to 366 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,520 Speaker 1: come back within to Paris. And I guess it's it's 367 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:50,480 Speaker 1: important to note here that Paris and Versi like twelve 368 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 1: miles apart, so this isn't like a multi day journey. 369 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:55,199 Speaker 1: They just like get mad one day and they wake up, 370 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:59,600 Speaker 1: and they walked to the next city over. And this 371 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:04,679 Speaker 1: radically changes the entire direction of the French Revolution because once, 372 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:07,359 Speaker 1: if the royal family is in Versailles, right like, the 373 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: Parisian mob doesn't have direct access to them. But once that, 374 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: once they're in Paris, and once once once this bread 375 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:18,479 Speaker 1: riot like brings the king to Paris, Suddenly the entire, like, 376 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,240 Speaker 1: the entire concentrated political power of the French system is 377 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,000 Speaker 1: now centered in Paris and is now in a place 378 00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,800 Speaker 1: where subsequent bread riots can actually do stuff. And this 379 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: directly leads to the King's being executed, This leads to 380 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:35,720 Speaker 1: our sponsors getting guillotined, and it basically it's it's it 381 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:41,440 Speaker 1: completely cements bread as sort of like the central part 382 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:43,640 Speaker 1: of one of the central aspects of what the French 383 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:45,359 Speaker 1: Revolution is about. Like by by by the end of 384 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:47,720 Speaker 1: the revolution, that the that the slogan of the sort 385 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,399 Speaker 1: of revolution stary French working class is bred in the 386 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 1: Constitution of seventeen nine three. So you know, you can 387 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: you can, you can you can look at the priorities 388 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:56,640 Speaker 1: there and look at like all of this is sort 389 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:01,159 Speaker 1: of and it sort of extended rolling bread riot um. Unfortunately, 390 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,919 Speaker 1: for us uh and spoilers to everyone who has not 391 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:09,119 Speaker 1: caught up. On the end of the French Revolution, the 392 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:14,280 Speaker 1: revolution loses, Napoleon takes power, and this is where we 393 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:18,560 Speaker 1: we enter the era of what's known as the bourgeois revolution. 394 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:20,680 Speaker 1: This is this is the modern era. And if you 395 00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,560 Speaker 1: if you've read your like your like Arab cop swom, 396 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 1: you're like, you're you're sort of very conventional like march historians, 397 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,400 Speaker 1: you're conventional sort of liberal historians. They will all tell 398 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,120 Speaker 1: you that the bread riots ort of dies in nearly 399 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,120 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, and that's replaced by like strikes and political 400 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: protests organized by unions and parties, because like the rural 401 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,160 Speaker 1: class has been like displaced at the center of history 402 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:46,880 Speaker 1: by the industrial working class. And that's just like not true. Um, 403 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,399 Speaker 1: And it's not true in two senses. One, it's in 404 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,040 Speaker 1: the sense that like, we have bread rights now, but 405 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: it's also not true because there's another wave of bread 406 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,199 Speaker 1: riots that are that are very very conventional and very 407 00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: much sort of in the class exemption Hunter's mold. Here 408 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: is here's Lynn Taylor again. It is true that the 409 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: proactive form of protests became common even predominant by the 410 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,800 Speaker 1: early twentieth century. However, scattered tode the periodical literature are 411 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,720 Speaker 1: accounts of twentieth century food riots, which looks surprisingly like 412 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,480 Speaker 1: those of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, something not 413 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:21,879 Speaker 1: expected in modern industrialized nation states. Food riots occurred in 414 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: northern France in nineteen eleven, in Britain during the winter 415 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,159 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixteen, nineteen seventeen in New York and nineteen 416 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 1: seventeen in Toronto and both twenty three, in Barcelona in 417 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, in Vichy, France in nineteen two, and in 418 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: northern France throughout the German occupation. The form of protest 419 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,720 Speaker 1: was remarkably consistent in each and reminiscent of traditional food 420 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:46,400 Speaker 1: riots of earlier centuries. And these are these are these 421 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,040 Speaker 1: are very conventional sort of eighteenth century bread riots that 422 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,560 Speaker 1: led by women. They refuse that they're lived by women 423 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,160 Speaker 1: who are refusing to pay higher prices for food. And 424 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,840 Speaker 1: in some sense they kind of are a political in 425 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,040 Speaker 1: that there are various attempts in basically all of these 426 00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:03,920 Speaker 1: protests by like organized political organistations to take them over, 427 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,000 Speaker 1: and basically every single time the women who were involved 428 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:10,199 Speaker 1: are like, no, absolutely not uh there's there. There's a 429 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:13,199 Speaker 1: very funny one where I think this is the the 430 00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:17,880 Speaker 1: I think this is the British one in seventeen were 431 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:19,440 Speaker 1: like a bunch of men show up and the women 432 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,959 Speaker 1: are like, no, go home, you can't riot with us. 433 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: This is this is our riot now. Yeah. Then the 434 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,720 Speaker 1: British case in particular was also interesting because this is 435 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 1: the middle of World War One, and so you know, 436 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 1: this is a sort of giant presence looming over these 437 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:37,160 Speaker 1: these these bread riots, and you know the government sort 438 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: of like that. The government in response to this, or 439 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:42,280 Speaker 1: responsors to widespread hunger, like decreased these price controls on food, 440 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,639 Speaker 1: but farmers are just refusing to obey them, and so 441 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:49,240 Speaker 1: women in Mayport organized and the result was quote when 442 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,359 Speaker 1: one farmer said he did not care what the government 443 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:55,119 Speaker 1: said about price controls, there was bedlamb The women rushed 444 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,919 Speaker 1: the farmer's cart and the street was quote filled with hooting, 445 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,720 Speaker 1: yelling women and young people while potatoes, cabbages and turn 446 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,840 Speaker 1: ups for flying through the air. The example of Mayport 447 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,320 Speaker 1: soon spread to other parts of the country. These riots 448 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:08,600 Speaker 1: are led by housewives who had filled the front lines 449 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: and did much of the fighting, although the miners of 450 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,680 Speaker 1: Cumberland were also active in supporting their wives efforts, both 451 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,679 Speaker 1: as added bodies strengthening the crowds, but also through the 452 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,920 Speaker 1: minors Association of the working class institutions. So A, I 453 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:24,199 Speaker 1: don't know. I had to include this specifically because the 454 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 1: image of a bunch of people throwing cabbages at farmers 455 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:32,200 Speaker 1: is extremely funny to me. M. But the other thing 456 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,199 Speaker 1: I think is interesting here is you can start to 457 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:39,280 Speaker 1: see the shifts from the sort of eighteenth century like 458 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: riots to these ones on on a social level, where 459 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,119 Speaker 1: you know, in eighteen hundreds you're dealing with sort of 460 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: like town and sort of peasant cultural groupings sho as 461 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,879 Speaker 1: approaching the protest, but by the Nine Dreds bread riots 462 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: are being backed by like organized political institutions. Um, there's 463 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 1: another one in New York in nteen seventeen, which is 464 00:24:54,560 --> 00:25:01,200 Speaker 1: remarkable for being it's self organized by Like it's remarkable 465 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,760 Speaker 1: because it's it's self organized by women, even though this 466 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:05,919 Speaker 1: is like the part of New York they're in is 467 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,159 Speaker 1: a Socialist Party stronghold. But the Socialist party is that 468 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:09,840 Speaker 1: there are the people who do it. It's the women 469 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: who are like married. In a lot of cases, to 470 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: the Social Party or in to some excenter in it, 471 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,520 Speaker 1: but are sort of operating autonomously. And they do this 472 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:19,119 Speaker 1: thing where they sort of like they start setting and 473 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 1: forcing these boycotts of like shops that are deemed to 474 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:24,480 Speaker 1: be at like press gouging levels, and they fight the 475 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: cops and they do a bunch of stuff. Um and 476 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:31,400 Speaker 1: the ones I mentioned in Toronto earlier interesting because those 477 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:35,200 Speaker 1: ones actually do like have an organization in the beginning, 478 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:37,600 Speaker 1: but in keeping with sort of the tradition of of 479 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,080 Speaker 1: of the bread right, the organization was the Jewish Women's 480 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:44,239 Speaker 1: the Jewish Women's Labor League. And these are these are 481 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,320 Speaker 1: remarkably effective political movements. They win their demands really quickly. 482 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,240 Speaker 1: I'm going to read one more account because it just rules. Uh. 483 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: Lester Golden and Temma Kaplan have both examined food riots 484 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,720 Speaker 1: in Barcelona in en, part of a wave of riots 485 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:01,639 Speaker 1: which occurred between June seventeen and Mark nineteen nineteen throughout Spain. 486 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,600 Speaker 1: As in previous cases, these riots aroupted because of devastating 487 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,120 Speaker 1: price inflation, a thing we know nothing about now this time, 488 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:11,720 Speaker 1: resulting from the post war collapse of the economy. The 489 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: participants were all women. They forbade men's participation, and the 490 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,080 Speaker 1: actions were led first by radical Republicans and then by 491 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,199 Speaker 1: a small group of female and arco syndicalists. The women's 492 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,280 Speaker 1: demands were simple and straightforward. They demanded lower prices for foods. 493 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:26,520 Speaker 1: They attacked bread shops and coal wag as it took 494 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: over a ship laden with fish. When police and civil 495 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,840 Speaker 1: guard attempted to break out the women crowds of women 496 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:34,879 Speaker 1: on the street, the women turned on them, stripping some 497 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,840 Speaker 1: of the officers of their pants, banking or thrashing them 498 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:47,040 Speaker 1: and sending them home. Yes, yes, that's that's not It's 499 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:51,760 Speaker 1: so good, perfect, perfect, This is the energy we need 500 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,560 Speaker 1: in every century that human beings have ever inhabitants. Amazing 501 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,639 Speaker 1: that the historians are parent parenthetical notes after is quote, 502 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,560 Speaker 1: rather undermining the authority in the process, which yes, I 503 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,840 Speaker 1: would imagine. So, yes, if you are, if you are 504 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,560 Speaker 1: being spanked by a crowd, you have lost control of 505 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 1: that crowd. That that that is that is fair to say. 506 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,879 Speaker 1: And so they it takes about three weeks and they 507 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:25,840 Speaker 1: win and prices drop thirty So good for them. That's 508 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,680 Speaker 1: a pretty solid look. Hey, I think I think most 509 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,119 Speaker 1: of the people listening would do some hardcore spanking if 510 00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:34,159 Speaker 1: they could get a cut on their grocery bill. Yeah, 511 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,080 Speaker 1: it's it's a look. I'm just saying, it is much 512 00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 1: harder to pull down a modern cops trousers because they're 513 00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,000 Speaker 1: wearing like so much weird ship on top of it. 514 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:47,080 Speaker 1: But belt technology has improved tremendously since then. Yeah, however, Comma, 515 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:52,280 Speaker 1: where there is a will, there's a way. Yep. If 516 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,520 Speaker 1: I learned one thing from high school, if that anyone 517 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,960 Speaker 1: can be pantsed just you just you just have to. 518 00:27:58,000 --> 00:27:59,399 Speaker 1: You just have to. You just have to want it 519 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,680 Speaker 1: hard enough to want it more than the person wants 520 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,359 Speaker 1: to be wearing their pants. That's right, that's right, you 521 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,280 Speaker 1: have to believe. So there's one more of these bread 522 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:10,880 Speaker 1: riots that's worth talking about, which also is not conventionally 523 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: framed as a bread right, but is entirely keeping with 524 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: everything I've said here, the February Revolution in Russia. Um So, 525 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: the February Revolution is the revolution that actually overthrows the Tsar. 526 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: There's another revolution, which is the Octo Revolution, which is 527 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,920 Speaker 1: one of the bullshrace gone to power. But that's a 528 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:29,359 Speaker 1: that's that's a separate one. They're fighting a completely group 529 00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: of people. The February Revolution has all of the sort 530 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,000 Speaker 1: of key factors of a bread right right, There's these 531 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,760 Speaker 1: massive bread lines. Women are piste off by lack of food. 532 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,440 Speaker 1: The revolution itself is led by women whose like male 533 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: comrades had literally told them, don't, like, don't go out 534 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:45,600 Speaker 1: and do a protest on that day because this International 535 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,760 Speaker 1: Women's Day. But the like all all of the men 536 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: who are like doing this are are convinced that, like 537 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: the conditions aren't right for revolution, so they try to 538 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,000 Speaker 1: get everyone to stay home, and everyone's like no. And 539 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: you know, like the sort of key differ prints between 540 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: the like this bread riot and the other bread routs 541 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,760 Speaker 1: we're talking about is that, you know, the the demands 542 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 1: of the of the march in International Women's Day, United 543 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 1: seventeen are overtly political, like they they are chanting down 544 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:16,520 Speaker 1: with the czar and they're trying to overthrow the government. 545 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,760 Speaker 1: And this, you know, this is another thing that has 546 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,720 Speaker 1: this sort of like incredible impact on on how the 547 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,200 Speaker 1: bolshot revolution is is sort of working. Right, Like Lenin 548 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 1: winds up using peace bread in Land as one of 549 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,560 Speaker 1: the sort of like central like Bolshevik slogans because part 550 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:34,360 Speaker 1: of it, because a huge part about the revolution is 551 00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: is just a bread riot, and that that that's where 552 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:40,960 Speaker 1: where we're that's that's where we're gonna leave it today 553 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,120 Speaker 1: with the world just completely and utterly transformed by another 554 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:47,760 Speaker 1: bread riot. And next episode we're going to get to 555 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 1: the modern bread riots because those are also interesting. And yeah, 556 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,520 Speaker 1: we're gonna once again prove everyone who insists that bread 557 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,680 Speaker 1: riots don't happen anymore wrong, A thing that I didn't 558 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,160 Speaker 1: know existed until I started reading this and now incredibly 559 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,480 Speaker 1: mad about. Yeah, So go out there and have a 560 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:09,680 Speaker 1: bread riot, pants a cop or some other kind of riot, 561 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: you know, uh, a GUACAMOLEI riot um, a mate riot 562 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:20,120 Speaker 1: um you could have. You could have some kind of 563 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,560 Speaker 1: corn riot um. You could have a riot over order 564 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:26,520 Speaker 1: law on. That would be a unique kind of riot. 565 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,680 Speaker 1: Don't think anyone's ever rioted over that. That bird that 566 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,080 Speaker 1: that's such a beautiful songbird. That eating it as a sin, 567 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:35,680 Speaker 1: so you have to like hide your shame underneath a 568 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: sheet so God doesn't see you eat it. Have a 569 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,120 Speaker 1: riot over one of those, you know, yeah, I do 570 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:47,360 Speaker 1: that it could happen. Here is a production of cool 571 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:50,360 Speaker 1: Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media. Visit 572 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,800 Speaker 1: our website cool zone media dot com, or check us 573 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,120 Speaker 1: out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 574 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,160 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find sources for 575 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:00,720 Speaker 1: It could happen here, Updated monthly at cool Zone me 576 00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: to dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.