ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that whole arc of negotiations at Etruria was classic provision politics. A war for survival against Revolutionary France 17931802 strained British military resources, politics and finances, disrupted international trade, and called for national policy. In the following decade, major dearth crises in 179596 and 18001801 occurred in circumstances profoundly altered since the mid-century's formative generation, provision politics became nationalized. The chapter also focuses on the first riotous responses to the dearth of 179596 were launched by veteran communities in Cornwall and Devon, by colliers from Wales and the Midlands to Tyneside, and by militiamen along the south coast. Devon's food riots along the South Hams were mostly episodes of orderly disorder, set-pieces of community negotiation in traditional marketplaces typical of the Southwest. Meanwhile national mobilization against French invasion created another kind of potent alien community, militia regiments, armed, drilled in collective action, and free of civil authority.
