Provisioning Paris

by Steven Kaplan

Steven Kaplan is writing about how Paris is fed. He is interested in the supply of grain to Paris in the period just before the French Revolution and spends a great deal of time on how in Paris the king was known as the ‘baker of last resort’. In the minds of the people he was responsible for feeding the city. This put the king in a very difficult position: the problem is not only whether you can grow enough food, but also whether you can transport it and so on.