ABSTRACT
In the later years of Louis XIV the ageing king and his ministers were forced to confront severe social problems when climatic accidents produced two terrible crises in 1693-94 and 1709, on a scale that no government action could have done much to alleviate. After calamitous harvests both local and central authorities quite sensibly concentrated on trying to prevent panic reactions and disorder, since it was obvious that these worsened matters by disrupting the normal movement of grain. Even in less extreme cases prohibitions on grain exports were one key weapon with some potential to reassure consumers against fears of famine. They were, however, unpopular with landlords and with administrators, the latter concerned that the resulting local shortages of coin would endanger tax collection. In any case, major crises saw royal power melt away at any distance from Paris, so the best the crown could do was to encourage self-help in the localities, while issuing largely empty threats against those who hoarded grain. Emergency measures of this kind have to be regarded as reactions rather than significant long-term policies, to be set against a background of relative indifference or at least inaction towards social issues at governmental level. So while the later reign of Louis XIV saw some very serious efforts to palliate shortterm problems caused by economic circumstances, there was no matching attempt to grapple seriously with the underlying conditions and systemic failures that made French society so vulnerable to crises of this type.
