Golden Hill

France's revolutionaries were poetic. They gave the twelve months new names: Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivôse, Pluviôse, Ventôse, Germinal, Floréal, Prairial, Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor. But poetry could not fill empty stomachs. In Germinal of Year Three of the Republic, the people of Paris gathered and launched a civic uprising, crying, "Bread!"

Capitalism pursued profit above all else. Whatever was scarce went up in price, even necessities like food.

When the Thermidorians first came to power, they stabilized prices for a time. On December 23, 1794, the day before christmas eve, the Thermidorian government announced the repeal of the Maximum Price Law, lifting restrictions on speculators. These policies rapidly worsened the plight of the common people.

God was dead, and the Church had been driven out. In the past, when disaster struck, the Church had been responsible for social relief. Once the clergy were expelled, social relief virtually ceased to exist.

The mass demonstration on Germinal 12 stormed into the National Convention, but the demonstrators merely shouted slogans demanding bread and social relief. They offered no specific plan, and in the end, they were suppressed by troops mobilized by the Thermidorians.

In chaotic times, no one knew whether they would live to see tomorrow. France was one of Europe's major grain producers. If France itself was suffering famine, Britain had even less chance of importing grain from there. Moreover, Britain and America were fighting the first American Revolutionary War at the time, and Indian wheat was an important source of Britain's food security.

The British habit of eating wheat and bread came from Rome, especially in England. But Britain's rainy climate was unsuitable for growing wheat, and likewise unsuitable for growing rice. The island did not accumulate enough warmth, and rice required a warm climate.

The Paris Basin had a warm climate,