ABSTRACT
Food riots had long been a common form of popular protest, but they reached new intensity worldwide in the eighteenth century, precisely when food supplies were becoming more dependable overall. In medieval Europe, the Catholic Church called for a "moral economy" and condemned merchants who overcharged consumers for basic foods. Agricultural improvements of the eighteenth century, which had advanced furthest in England, provided the setting for food riots. The enclosure movement turned communal fields into private property, allowing wealthy farmers to accumulate large productive tracts and reducing the mass of peasants to wage labor. Although founded by Manchu invaders, Qing dynasty sought to preserve intact the customs of its Chinese subjects. Chinese governors nevertheless recognized the vital role of merchants in distributing grain throughout empire. Qing emperors never envisioned the ever-normal granary system as a replacement for private commerce. At their height in sixteenth century, Ottoman sultans held sway from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf and across North Africa.
