ABSTRACT
In good years more farm hands and the simultaneously advancing agricultural techniques had the effect of driving down commodity prices in the urban markets. In an atmosphere of agrarian and urban discontent, ideas of reform, once enunciated, could produce unexpected reverberations and thus in themselves become a second, distinct source of political unrest. Much has been written about the political 'activism' of the Enlightenment, the intellectual ferment which Europe had been experiencing since the late 1600s. Despite the distrust which the more advanced extreme reformers felt towards these political leaders, the latter's opposition to the king and Lord North seemed by 1780 to ensure political changes. The aristocratic Republicans were pro-Russian in foreign affairs because they opposed any reduction in Poland's 'Golden Liberty', which is to say, noble privileges. The Moderates, who represented the king most directly, hoped to make a number of specific changes without giving Russia a pretext for military action.
