Une émeute de subsistances à Tours au XVIIIe siècle

Abstract

Since 1768, new public disturbances had been occuring in Touraine on the market-places of boroughs and towns ; during the second half of February 1774, boats loaded with grain which were going down the Loire and Cher valleys, were plundered in and around Tours. The climax of the disturbances was between February 19tn and 22th ; there were mobs of rioters but no blood shed. Order was reestablished by the constabulary, helped by the bourgeois militia and the army. The lower classes seemed exasperated by the grain trade which they held responsible for high prices, although prices were not so high as in 1771 and 1772. Legal proceedings were soon started and the sentence heavy: 21 were indicted and 7 condemned, among whom 3 were sentenced to death and immidiatly hanged. The poeple who took part in the looting were city dwellers as well as country people but the latter were the main victims of repression. The town of Tours does seem to have gone through other supply disturbances before the summer of 1789.