Flour War

The Flour War (Guerre des farines) of 1775 was an uprising caused by the excessive price of bread in France before the French Revolution. Early in the season for wheat harvesting and flour production, the government enacted fewer price controls than later in the year, leaving prices to the free market. This caused the price of flour to climb, and the working classes could not buy bread. They demanded the intervention of the state to force millers to release all the flour they were holding in reserve.