Managing food crises: Urban relief stocks in preindustrial Holland

Abstract

One of the ways in which towns and cities in pre-industrial Europe responded to food crises was by establishing public grain stocks, intended for relief. This article shows how purchases and distribution of grain in Holland were affected by the long-term developments of commercialization and state formation. Two conclusions stand out. Firstly, both the acquisition of supplies and the distribution of relief relied heavily on the market. However, while market mechanisms were originally used to provide targeted relief through subsidies, at the end of the period under examination this was supplanted by a — largely unjustified — trust in the effects of the presence and release of stocks on food prices in general. Secondly, in keeping with a long-standing tradition of decentralized governance, urban governments and urban poor relief organizations were the main providers of the safety net that protected the food entitlements of vulnerable groups throughout the period under examination, even after the establishment of a centralized unitary state in the early nineteenth century.