France - The Economic History
Chronology of Economic Events
1768
Government efforts to deal with shortages lead to popular rumors of a 'famine pact' among the nobility to starve the people.
Poor harvest in the fall.
Bread prices in Paris increase by over 50%.
Rioting starts at Beaumont-sur-Oise, spreads to Paris.
Hundreds arrested, two executed, before order is restored.
June 11 - Coronation of Louis XVI.
Successor Joly de Fleury implements tax increases. By December 1782 will raise 252 million livres.
March - Notables balk at overhauling tax and administrative systems.
May 1 - Brienne appointed Chief of the Royal Council of Finances.
Government floats new loan.
May 25 - Assembly of Notables dissolved.
June 7 - Day of Tiles (Grenoble); Mob bombards troops with tiles; 4 people killed in rioting, 40 injured.
July 13 - Severe hailstorm destroys crops in northern France.
August 8 - Announcement of convocation of Estates General.
Will formally meet on May 1, 1789.
August 16 - Government suspends treasury payments on loans due to lack of funds, causing panic in French stock market, as well as a bank run.
August 24 - Necker reappointed.
Reimposes price controls, in anticipation of shortages from poor harvest.
September - Restoration of Parlements.
Oct 5 - Dec 12 - Second Assembly of Notables meets.
Oct 24 - 26 - Necker reappointed Minister of Finance.
January 26-29 - Crowd demanding lower bread prices is attacked by bands of students. Several killed in the fighting.
Winter-spring - Shortages lead to higher prices and rising unemployment.
April 27-28 - Reveillon riots. Acting on rumors of wage cuts, rioters destroy factory of wallpaper manufacturer; 25 killed when troops open fire.
May 5 - Estates General convene.
May - Bread riots occur throughout Flanders, Artois, Picardy, and Normandy.
June 17 - National Assembly proclaimed.
June 20 - Tennis Court Oath.
June 28-30 - Rioters protesting high prices destroy city's toll-gates.
Early July - Troops assigned to protect convoys of grain and flour.
July 11 - Necker dismissed.
July 14 - Rising grain prices and food shortages finally peak.
Fall of the Bastille.
July 22 - Foulon and Bertier, rumored to have been part of a plot to starve Paris, are murdered and decapitated by a mob.
July 20 - 31 - "Great Fear" - Fear that nobility intends to use force to reverse gains causes panic among peasantry throughout France.
Castles and abbeys sacked.
August 26 - Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen.
August - Government attempt to float two loans fails.
September - Grain prices increase. Grain riots occur around Paris and groups of women stop grain convoys. Guards placed around bakers' shops.
October 5-6 - Fueled by rumors of another starvation plot, crowd marches to Versailles. Lafayette escorts king back to Paris, followed by a procession of 60,000.
October 21 - Martial Law against Tumults passed. Allows local authorities to declare martial law to deal with disturbances.
June 13-17 - Fighting between Catholics and Protestants leaves 300 dead in Nimes.
August 31 - Mutiny by troops at Nancy put down. 23 mutineers executed.
September 3 - Necker resigns.
March 2 - Trade guilds abolished by National Assembly.
June 14 - Le Chapelier Law bans worker organizations and collective actions, effectively preventing strikes and collective bargaining.
June 20 - Louis XVI tries to flee. Stopped at Varennes.
July 17 - Champ de Mars massacre - 50 people killed when National Guard troops open fire on crowd of 50,000.
September - December - Paris authorities increase grain reserves in anticipation of shortages. Leads to depletion of stocks in outlying regions.
September 14 - Louis XVI accepts constitution.
September 30 - National Assembly dissolved.
October 1 - Legislative Assembly meets for first time.
January-February - Grain riots in northeastern France due to depleted stocks.
February - Mayor of Etampes lynched for failing to lower grain price reduction.
Dunkirk's warehouses destroyed in three days of rioting provoked by attempts to export grain.
April 20 - France declares war on Austria.
August 10 - Tuileries stormed and monarchy overthrown.
September 2 - 6 - September Massacres. An estimated 1,200 to 1,400 prisoners murdered by mobs and tribunals.
September 21 - National Convention meets.
September 22 - Republic proclaimed.
December - Trial of Louis XVI.
February - Sugar and coffee price increases lead to petitions for the passage of a maximum price law.
February 26 - Grocery riots in Paris. Grocery shops and warehouses attacked and sales forced at fixed prices.
March 10 - Revolutionary Tribunal created.
April 6 - Committee of Public Safety created. May 1 - 8,000 demonstrators mob Convention demanding the introduction of price controls on bread. Girondins resist maximum.
May 20 - Forced loan on the rich.
May 24 - Crowds in Lyons invade warehouse and sell army provisions.
May 31 - Anti-Girondin uprising in Paris.
June 2 - Crowd of around 80,000 surrounds Convention and forces it to purge Girondins. (21 would be executed in October.)
June 24 - Constitution of 1793 accepted.
June 25 - Crowds of women attack soap suppliers and force sales.
July 26 - Death penalty for hoarding law passed.
September 4 - Workers in Paris march on the Convention, demanding end to shortages.
September 5 - "Reign of Terror" begins when Convention votes to implement terror.
September 23 - Forced loan on the rich.
September 29 - General Maximum Law imposes price controls on goods.
October 16 - Marie Antoinette beheaded.
Oct. 24-30 - Trial of Girondins.
October 31 - Execution of Girondins.
March - Hebertists arrested and executed.
April 5 - Danton and Desmoulins executed.
April - Le Chapelier law against price increases used to punish ringleaders of tobacco workers who had asked for a wage increase.
July 5 - Wage controls introduced in Paris.
July 27-28 - Robespierre loses support among Parisian laborers following implementation of wage controls, is ousted from power and guillotined.
August 1 - Law of 22 Prairial repealed. Terror begins to collapse with governmental reorganization.
August 9 - Wage controls abandoned.
August 11 - Committee of Public Safety deprived of major role in government.
September 7 - Maximum Law extended by Convention for another year.
December 24 - Maximum abolished.
Frozen rivers disrupt transport system for winter.
March 22 - Women petition Convention for better bread supplies.
March 24 - Convention orders requisition of two-thirds of available grain supplies from suppliers.
March 27-28 - Bread riots in sections of Paris.
April 1-2 - Uprising of Germinal. Crowd (10,000) marches on Convention.
April 10 - Convention authorizes disarming of "terrorists."
May 4 - Former terrorists massacred by mob in Lyons.
May 20-23 - Uprising of Prairial. Mob invades Convention hall. Slogan "Bread and the Constitution of 1793" is heard. Deputy Feraud killed.
Convention restores order and executes mob leaders in retaliation.
May 31 - Revolutionary Tribunal abolished.
Summer - Paris endures shortages of basic commodities and inflation.
July 21 - Royalist invasion at Quiberon repulsed.
November 2 - Directory constituted.
December 10 - Forced loan.
March 2 - Napoleon Bonaparte appointed commander in Italy.
August 1 - Battle of the Nile. Lord Nelson destroys French fleet, stranding Napoleon.
June 27 - Forced loan.
December 9-10 - Directory overthrown by Napoleon.
April 18 - Concordat promulgated.