ABSTRACT
Subsistence crises, however, continued to make life difficult for the mass of Frenchmen throughout the eighteenth century and until past the middle years of the nineteenth century. This chapter aims to consider some of the social consequences of this continued inability of agriculture and commerce to match supply with demand. A poor harvest had the effect of reducing incomes from agriculture and of forcing consumers to spend increasing proportions of their incomes upon basic foodstuffs as food prices rose. The frequency of crises indicated the susceptibility of even the most modern sectors of industry to crises beginning in agriculture. The relationship between agriculture and industry was, then, one of the basic elements determining levels of demand and the pace of economic development. Malnutrition is a man-made disorder, reflecting the balance of economic and power relationships in a given society and the way in which resources are distributed.
