The General Maximum

On the 23rd September 1793 the General Maximum was passed by the National Convention as recommended by the Committee of Public safety.  The law was an extension of the Law of Suspects which had been passed twelve days previously.  That had granted the government the power to search and raid suspected hoarders.  The Revolutionary Tribunal was set up to further enforce this new legislation.  The General Maximum was designed to cap the price of food (such as grain, flour, meat etc) and necessity goods (firewood, leather and paper).  Anyone found selling goods at one third more than local prices of 1790 or exceeding wages from 1790 at one half again could be arrested.  

The Maximum was created due to a combination of factors.  There was rampant inflation on the paper currency of the assignat and the Maximum was hoped to stabilise this.  Despite capping bread prices earlier there had been growing evidence of radicalisation particularly when the National Convention was invaded in early September by sans-culottes demanding food.The General Maximum could not solve most of the problems causing rapidly rising food prices.  The war against the great powers of Europe drained manpower and prohibited imports reaching France.  There was a series of poor harvests across the late 18th century which greatly reduced the quantity of grain in circulation.  Many merchants suffered as they struggled to make ends meet and the black market flourished.

After the fall of Robespierre and the Thermidorian Reaction the penalty for surpassing the Maximum were ignored.  By the 23rd December it was decided that the Maximum no longer solved its purpose and the policy ended.

Marat condemns high prices and condones people taking actions into their own hands.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p250

It is incontestable that the capitalists, agents, and monopolisers are nearly all supporters of the Ancien Regime, as I see no chance of changing their hearts, I see nothing that can give tranquillity to the State but the total destruction of this accursed conspiracy. Today it redoubles its energies to distress the people by the exorbitant price of bread, the first necessary of life. Since there is no law to punish monopolisers, the people has a right to take justice into its own hands.