Flour War

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The Flour War refers to a wave of riots from April to May 1775, in the northern, eastern, and western parts of the Kingdom of France. It followed an increase in grain prices, and subsequently bread prices; bread was an important source of food among the populace. Contributing factors to the riots include poor weather and harvests, and the withholding by police of public grain supplies from the royal stores in 1773–1774. This large-scale revolt subsided following wheat price controls imposed by Turgot, Louis XVI's Controller-General of Finances (before the supply recovered), and the deploying of military troops.

The Flour War was part of a broader social and political crisis during the Ancien Régime. Recent analyses tend to treat this event not only as a revolt caused by hunger, but also as a prelude to the French Revolution.^[1]