Chapter Five The Moral Economy Reviewed hs in hrs we sat ene Par aaa Bibra ad ee eta Sie oe et oe reer Eicon bic cue cfciener ce receeee peated ore pening seer a ip uae“ eta at facie ire ween steers eee ncen eee ace merase ee ee Se =: Settaencratin raion Pere ene peta Tse repued tobe hearing orm and theatre sem with rope, Wee “A word first about my essay. Although first published in SPAS weitere fa SO Nene fea rer ses fava Ris tot cane ee iit trance os Mowat nears Whee Gas Seg enone" Ser eres mene eres St ta a aust oeahe Sees cet desea con Shee ates ttar ccceayeaatce‘of Warwick. By 1970, when Cobb published bis The Police Sed vie People our pan had erally ben dropped. There fed be no repet for te fllre of my part in that project to Come tot conchision, singe Roger Wells has now explozed ‘rey aapect of food and iss mediations in Bagand in the {950s in copious Gel in is Wretched Faces (988). ‘But his explanation serves to pace my esay, which was a cterprise not marginal but coral to my research interests ornerly ten years, My ls bulge wit material collected on tills and marketing and meal mebs, ef, but since much of this repeats the evidence adduced in my article it need not now be deployed, Buta lot of work underlay my findings, End [omey be forgiven if 1 am. impatient with tsvial cbjestions u ‘eon be necessary t0-retae-what my-esay-was shout It ‘was Hot about al Kinds of crowd, and areader would bave Je unusually thicksheaded who supposed so." Te was about the crowd's “moral economy” in a context which the article {deinen Nor wast about Enplsh and Wels fod rot in the Gghtceatn century — their where, why and_whex?) — “though it was cetanly concerned with these. My object of nals. was the mental, o:, a6 1 would prefer, the polieal culture, the expectations, traditions, and, indeed, fupestitions of tie working population most frequentty [pvlved in acon in the market; and the relations — some- times negotiations — between crowd and rules which £0 tuner the unsatisfactory term of "rio. My method was to construct paternalist model of food marketing, with Protective institutional expression and with emergency ‘ta Harn inane for pig th em “xe wht sat ct Deh egayof rasfamaon™: Crd a Ho Tikes nl Towne 90105 (Came 180, pO Mes Cer Ruled ebtoe reeriag te amd {Stirs node wich ame previ fora in wed. Noo ne tl cows nce on, tough Han ion TRSPE hla an alo pcos ay el" See akbctomes ws wb amie ae aly icing sare icrar 6 doe ni eon my are and te SHS A ‘Since chapter 6 does mot mention ery article, ne Be A blow to fal. routine jn time of dearth, which derive in part from earlier FHawardian and Tudor policies of provision and market- ‘Tegwaton; to contrast this with the new political economy of ‘ete past in pin out! shove al he ‘of Nations, and to show bow, in tes of high prices tnd of hardship, the crowd might enforce, with roby Gist action, protective market control and te regulation of prses, sometimes claiming a legitimacy derived from the pateralst moe "To understand the ections of any particular crowd may require attention to particular marketplaces ed particular practices ia dealing, But to understand the “politcal” space rhc the erowd might act and might negotiate withthe suthortes mast atend upon alse analysis ofthe relations ‘ewe the two. The findings in “The Moral Beonomy" ‘aot be taken sre across to any “peasant marke” nor _So'all proteindusrial market plges aor 10 Revolutionary France in the Years I and It nor to aineteethreentry ‘Madras, Some of the encounters between growers, dealers fd consumers were markedly sim, bt [have described them as they were worked out within the sven feld-oF- for ‘of heen ceatun-Rnglis elation. My essay did not offer a comprehensive overview of rood riots in England ia that century, i did not (For example) Conate the iedenoe of riots with price movements, n0¢ explain why rot was more common in some regions than in ‘tiers, nor attempt to chart-a dozen other variable ‘Abundant new evidence on such questions has been brought foward in recent years ad much of it has been helpfully ‘brought under examipation i Andsew Charlesworth’s A ‘Atta of Rural Protest in Britain, 1548-1900 (1983), De Joba Steveason complains that “The Moral Economy” tells us Nirmally nothing about why some places were almost pereanially subject fo lsurbanees, whist others remained Timort completely undisurbed”,* Dut this was not the "4, Stmenon "Foo! ist Hapland 15281 ulna 1, Suma Far Pa nd Pie aon), {er Al J. Son, “Toe Mo! Boon of te Ene Cr Sith a ety n Ancony Pech nS et), Oder (oe or Bir Maden aon (Castries, 8) = ‘thik nue tothe Simson.say's theme, Nor i there any sense in which the findings of Siholars Guch a8 Dr Stevenson) who have beea addressing fuck themes must necessarily contradict or compete with my ‘wn: Economic sad social historinns are not engaged In val Daryepolitieal performances, although one might some {mes suppose go. The study of wages and pres and the ‘dy of forme and expectations can complement each other. “There are tla few ineducable postviss lingering about ‘who do not 50 much disagree withthe findings of social Fintosans as they wish to disallow thelr questions. ‘They propore tat onty one set of directly economic explanations Gf food rots -~ questions. relating to the gran trade, Harvest, market prises, te, is needed ors even proper to be fhe. Au odd cramp is 9 short exay published by Dale Wiliams in 1976 ented “Were “Hunger Rioters Realy Hungry?" In this he descbed my “moral economy” as intended as “a replacement” foran evonomic-or quantitative ‘approach. He had somehow got it into his head that riots hist either be about hunger oF about “social isues involving Tocal usages and traditional rights". But i wil be recalled that T warn against precisely this confusion atthe outset of my esny, sing the analogy of @ sexual tension char: “the ‘objection s that sucha chart, fused unwisely, may conclude {vestigation atthe exact potat at which becomes of serious sociological or cultural interest being hungey (or ben S29), ‘hat do people da?” (p. 187). Of course food rioters were Rungsy "and on ocession coming elose to starvation. But Uhstdocs not tll ws how their behaviour fe “modified by ‘custom, culture and reason”, ‘Nevertsess, this iluitraies one point which we take far too ealy for granted. Comparative study of food rots has beens inevitably, nto the history of nations which had rts, ‘There has been less comparative reflection upon national Tistories which afford evidence — nnd sometimes evidence sadly plentiful — of dearth passing into famine without passing through any phase ib which ries of the West. Boropean kind have been noted. Famines have been suffered Jn the pat (as a Ireland and in india) and are suffered today fn several parts of Attica, as our television sereens reveal, ‘with a fatten sometimes mistaken for apathy or resign tHon, Its not only that beyond a certain point the under- nourished have no phytical or emotional resources fr riot (ror this reason riot must take place before people are 50 weakened, and ie may presuppose a watchfl extimate of {ture supply and of market prices) 1 ako tha Fotis 3 {roup, commiunty, or class responte (0 cis; fs not within fhe power ofa fe individual frit. Nor need tbe the only for the most obvious form of collective action — there may be fdkamatives such as the mase-petioning of the authoritics, fast daye, sacrifices and prayer; perambulation of the houses of the Heh; othe migration of whole villages ‘Riot need not be favoured within the culture ofthe poor Te might provoke the pods (who had already ent dearth as Sudgement’), snd ie could certtinly alienate the governors for the rch from whom alone some stall lief might come Sia oncoming harvest failure would be wate with Tena ‘ve “Thunger employs its own outiders- Those who have ready experienced ie can see t announced, not ony inthe ‘ky, but in the fel, scrutinized each year with increasing trey, week by week during the Hot summer months..." In the ighteeath centory Britain was only emerging fon the ‘jemosraphie ancien regime”, with is periodial visitations of famine and of ‘plague, ‘and dearth revived ageold Memories and fears. Famine sould place the whole social ‘order on therack, and the rulers were tested by thet response foie, Indeed, by vsble and welradvertsed exertions the fers might” actualy” strengdhen ther. wuthority during flerth, as John Walter and Keith Wrightson ave argued from seventeenth century examples, Central goverument by {feuing procamations, invoking, the succesve regulations ‘hich became known asthe Book of Orders, and proclaiming ‘alonal days of fat, ad the Tocal authorities by «furry of Fighy-visible accvty against pety offenders ranging from adeers, forestallers and repators 0 drunkards, swears, Sbathbreskers, gamblers and rogues, might actually gain 1G cath, The Poe nd he rp On 170. 32 Fo ‘isbral Eaange Gar 90)