ABSTRACT
Promoting the availability of foodstuffs, pressing farmers and merchants to sell rather than withhold their wares, rioters acted on behalf of a plentiful market, although not, it must be stressed, on behalf of a free one. In the prominence of women, rioters' adoption of the symbols of authority, and their efforts to pay victims a "reasonable price", Americas Revolutionary price riots followed Old World precedents. What may have been the first intimation of a food riot, in 1775, exposed the possibility of conflict between inhabitants and local Revolutionary officials. People who assumed their own competence at delineating the boundaries of the Boston community might assume the right to define the limits of the Revolution itself. As price inflation and the incidence of food riots increased, "Moderate Men" questioned the policy of keeping equitable dealing at the center of the Revolution.
