A New Look at The French Revolution of 1830
A New Look at The French Revolution of 1830
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" ~Among the.re..volu~ons in France since 1789 one, the Revolution of 183Q, has
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been smgumly neglected by historians in this century, and nei ther in this
century_ ~or th~ pr~eding one has it attracted much attention from any but
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the Poliocal histonans. The economic and sociological dimensions of the
t event have been generally ignored. Consequently, the Revolution of 18.30
r .is ordinarily ~ ~ a political movement arising out of the unpopularity of
Charles X and his mimsters and out of therr attempt to arrogate the sovereign
,pow:er to the crown. ...
This conventional_history, written in the single dimension of politics,
leaves much unexplained; many questions :unanswered.
Wh did the work~ of · · k their lives in July 1830? To defend
the Charter of1814 as many contemporaries fatuous y pretended to elieve?
To defend the abstract principles of 1789? To re-establish the Republic,
which was to some a distant memory, to most only a hazy ideal? .
Why did. the same limited electorate of substantial property owners
change from strongly pro-royalist and pro-government in 1824 to pro-liberal r.
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and anti-government in the next general election less th.an four years later t-
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and become revolutionaries in 1830? Was this startling reversal owing solely
to the ultra-royalists' political policies? Even in 1824 the electorate knew
pretty well what these policies were, and then it approved them.
r Why did the provinces accep~ the Revolution so readily? Why clid
Chades not appeal to the provinces to support him against revolutionary
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·pans? The history of the Great Revolution would certainly suggest this
course. . ..
--rfi.e basic Ger seen from the vanrage paint of economic history is that
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the Reve.lution of 1830 occuned d ~ a depression that wracked the
. French economy from 1823 oo 1832. !i0
popular resort to violence came
when food pric.cs in Paris, and m the provinces, too, were at a level that tens
of thousands of workmgmen could not afford to pay.
The reversal of the prosperity that France llad enjoyed after 1817 was
first evident in 1826. In that year industrial prices, moving upward for nearly
a decade, fell off. Wages in industry declined as much as 10 per cent. In some
places unem~ ment w;s considerable-11,000 loo~s were idJe in Lyo~ in
the spring of 1826; in the same year 3000 construcuon workers unaole ~o
find work in Paris returned to their homes in central France. These econonuc
reverses although l~caUy serious produced no widespread distress, but in
~vid H. Pinkney, .. }. New Look at the Frm.ch Revolution of 1830," Rrviru· of Politiu, X:XIU (1961),
490-501. (0 RL11itw of Polltiu. Used by permission.
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THE RF.STORAnos' A :-.-0 FA.LL O P TH.E 8 O UUON5 rt,c worker c A~
it:w Loo,: A1' TII! FUN0t REVOLUTION OF 1330 21 9
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wa.s on cl :i::_-,._- - o ther ocpenciiture:s that his meager budget could afford ,.,,o stcmm:d fr;~n Certainly many deaths attn1mted to o~cr ~~ ~ . t~
tcxtil~ · d Ou.un~d · d . f - -
re ucnon o that expenditure, in tum, affected the really}12d .its,. h eav11:5t
832
. . prolonged privation. The great cholera epidemic Ill
1 ·d . -_, In
~~ , ~~ -
m uscry The c . l. - ~ - - - ~-
th.at continued ·thro otton, woo ~d s:~ industries, all fell into doldrums _ 1 . 1828 th net ~~ m the poor, starved quarters of th~ capic.u.._ , 1
- :: · ::-~
dazwid--£ ugh lS31. The ll'On mdustry was affected in 1829. The· Octobe~:te . R.1se. '. e Commisstoner of Police in the Faubourg Samt-Antomc \ \
· of b rca d ... produced . . . b'mer comp=ts
j +7£ l
or coal dee~ F the fu:s · • · · • f th wro · f in. the pnee 1- : _
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w.e : · - ;1~
i. ~
R.cstor:ation the nu - or t nme since the bcgmnmg~ e
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Middl lass~ cl.ass saw prices and profits dcoe and stay depressed. approach o wint ·
_ er frightens the people and. -w1th good reason. ... Soon ~e - , • • -~
infer this fre c theopI01o~ blamed the government for the crisis. One might father of~ fa~y ':ill not cam enough to buy bread and how can he provide t ; ~ ~
om c::xpenencc of our own nme, our own practice of holding for cloth.in~ his chil~ren and for payment of his rent?" } \ i~
O"r
be~foundgovernmrn
in the~ responsib]
. c fjor d epress1on. or recCSSion,
. but proof of 1t. can To thous~n~ m Paris the difference between life and. death was: t!ie
bread card distnbuted by the police and by relief offices ~t e n ~
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satisfa . . e_arliamenr.ry debates and the press of the time. This dis-
. mon seems to have found expression, too in the parliamentary dec- the holder~ bread at reduced prices. In July, 1830, (significant date~ . ~ t\
ooru. . .In 1824 f · a pen·00 o f full prospemy
m . the
' electorate chose a large ?27,0CJJ Pans1~\ied for this relic( The population of tbe city was only - ~ ii
~Jonty ~ rightists, supporters of the government. Essentially the same 755,0CJJ. · • • . I~ t
e ectorate m 1827 returned a majority on the left, stro~ly hostile to the What was the connection between misery and revolution? ... It is v \ ~
government. In 1830, with the depression much ·worse the same voters cenain that les miserables in the depr~ion of th~ late_ Restoratioi:_i blamed the ( { ·
el~d an cv~ larger majority of leftists. A few weeks' later they calmly government, the King, and the Jeswts for theu plight. A police repon of ~ ,;
s~oned a violent revolution that ended the regime th.at they blamed for \ October 21, 1 ~28, recorded: I ~ ~ f \\
their ecoa.omic difficulties. The de1:ression surely had something to do with
this political reveru.l.
i l H:
A hand lette~ poster has been put up at the port of entry to the rue Saint-
Urban workingmen suffered much more than their em lo ers from the
depression. Noto y_ di err cost o iving rise isastrously but their wages
Nicolas, quarter of Quinze-Vinga: "Vive Napoleon t W :u to the dnth on Charles
X and the priests who want to starve w to death." Several workers applauded it. . ..
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dropped, and the curse of unemployment fell upon thousands. There were The same signs have been distributed in the roes de Cbarenton and de Cha.ronne. ::. ,. ;
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rnny variations from industry to industry and from region to region, but in in the faubourgs Saint-Marceau and Saint-Martin. ln cabarets arid. shops there
geaenl, Labrousse maintains, between 1826 and 1830 w ages declined from a is talk that the people mU5t join to march on the Tuikries to ask for work and
bread . . ..
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quarter to a third_ Unemployment was common by 1827-28 and in the
summer of 1828 and the following years it assumed serious proportions.
Police reports, prefectoral and procureur-general reports in these years ·all
attest to the generalization and persistence of unemployment throughout the·
I . Distress and desperation found overt expression in riots, dcmonstra-
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tlons, concer te~ violence scattered over all France, especially in the depart-
nation. The large foundry at Chaillot in Paris cut its force from three to four ments north o f the Loire River. After 1828 food rio.ts and rebellion against
hundred to one hundred. The royal tapestry factory, La Savonnerie, let go tax. collectors became the erincipal subject of reports from the p rocureun-
half its workers. In October, 1828, the Minister of the Interior instructed the ?e~eral . ln the eight~ months ending ~ Dec~m?er, 1827, only ~
prefects to discourage workingmen from coming to Pam in search .9f 1nadents Were mentio ed, but in 1829 nmcty mc1dents were _ r eported,
empl~ \ twenty-five in the
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of May alone. These included holding up grain
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r;__.-_-,,. < i.i C . . ts V ti
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f 2.20 THE RESTOR.'\TION AND fAU OF TH£ BOUR.B01'"5
convop, e..,--rortion ofgrain fiom peasants and troants, forced sales of grain at
r liitThcr.
D
In 1830 at .
A NEW LOOli. AT
least
nas FRENCH .REVOLUTION OF 1830
. th an
''fair " 1prices. destruction of octrai barriers, and the 5:1cking of offices of rax E had Jived there JUSt nry years earlier.
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coUecrars. Ar the same time the number of labor disturbances incrcascd- In those c;hirty years neither the city's .
economy
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nor its urb .
· an equipment
strikes, 'petitions, demonstrations for higher wages .or more work. Thi~agira- .-xpanded
....
to accommodate
, ==--."T
so e>..-plosrve
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an increase ·.
T-ew ho"r....,cs were buJ.1c
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.... . : 0 ,l,e_w.o.rkers....quartc_rs. t"'IO maJor street constru.ction w;u comp! - d - th
tion "~ mo~t inr·ense in the spnng, summer, and ~ a~ in 1~ - - , • - CCC tn c
~ - · old and crowded d1stn~.:_~w str~t3 ha~ underground sewers, and the
spring of 1830. . . . - -~ -
t
- The political signinC2ncc of this is unmistakable... . The government river still served as the pnnapal collector sewer. Not one house in five had
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W2S blamed for the troubles of die rime. "The King and ~
die riotas, "force up the p_rig:_of- ~t." Ar Saint-Germain-en-Laye ~
crowd gathered to protest the high cost of brcad shouted, "Vive la R~
esuits," fried
l running water.
The meaning of ~ ~ in h~m terms is doqucntly expressed in
statistical records and m literary evidence. In July, 1830, the number of
"pcrso~s _ai~~:u~_ublic ~dief, ~e bav_e ~ecn., q_~cd 225,000; IDO_!e than
pablique" and ~'Vive Napoleon!" In the same~~ rioters in two villages
raised the tricolor. Signs md handbills demanding bread insulted the King r one person m 1:_very four 10 Pans was livmg on the very edge of subsistence.
and acclaimed the da~ of die Revol',!_D-9~ when the La'wof the Maximum -~ ..Swarms o~~gars_wer~ a constant reminder of shocking poverty. The
J ~d kepr the_price_o(brca~low. _ _ J Jou ma I Jes Dlbats for- November 27, 1828, reported : "Begg.us pursue
,. m Th.e prolonged depression created .r sttuatJon_.bvorable to revolution. Ir passers-by in the streets, besiege the doors of churches, penetrate into houses,
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..,-.P Iii m.sperared bourgeoisie, workers, and ~ t s a.lik_e_ w,i_tlJ the Bourbon impose on storekeepers, and everywhere present the striking contrast of
GI; government, and in producing popokr disorder it accusromed __!!ten to abject misery beside we.uth and abundance." Th~ ~th rate. for.all rnnce
ml violent n:s:is~ce to authori '· Economic distress alone would probably not
pro ce .r ·tical revolution, but die .height ofeconomic distress coinciding
with a political a:isis and a provocative act by the king did ....
in the 1820's was about 25 per 1000. ln Paris it was 32 per thousand in 1828,
33 in 1822,.35 in 1830. In the age group of twenty to thir~ -nine years, which
included most of the imri:u~ ts. the d~ th r.~ beJ:Wecn 1826_m cJ taJO
m11 i / Sociology provides a second "'1ltage point from which to view the averaged ~frightening 48 per 1000. almost double the rate for the country as l
m . I Revolution. ... The cie_r:al suffered from a socul disequilibrium produced a whole. These £gures would be even higher in the crowded, poverty-stricken I
J ' by arj inBux of population greater dun the city could assimilate into its quarters of the center of the city. The death rates in the variow arrondisse-
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nornn1_ljfe. There were nor enoug}i_jo~ for all. Thousands were forced into ments of Paris in the 1820's varied directly with the degree of poverty in f
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·• ., the most menial, mo~ble iobJ_and_oblig_e.d_Jp Jiye_iJLp..¥t at. least on e2ch. Infant mortality in the Rue Mou.ffetard, for example, was double that
public relief an_d_p.rjvarr..cliariry. Housing capacity fell fu ilion of needs;
J
i , newcomcn and many others were forced to live in garrets and ·cellars, in
of the fashionable Rue du Faabourg Saint-Honor~. .. .
•ml I teeming .r~ents and crowded furnish.ed rooms. All the essential urban
The number of suicides and the number of homicides increased sharply
in the ~al years of the Restorari~q,_and both were expressions of the J
Eff,1 j equipmt:Dr lagged behind the growing needs of the waxing population; growing sickness of Parisian society. Most involved the poor and the
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streets were· inadequate for the growing t:ra.iic; there were not enough
sewers, not enough watcr.__not enough schools, not cnoug~ospitals. --. .
.misera~le of the city. Between 1830 and 1835 neJ.rly two-thirds of the bodi~
-brought to the Morgue remained unidenriiied and unclaimed. In death as m
·H·rr
"Tr! 1i A consequence of this imbalance wa.s the dcvdoJ?_menr o_f a population
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1arr ~
dc# · ~
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b o th ph;·llc,lh· .md morally on chc cdgc5 o av1 m.-o nc- L :. '
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\.. _ . - - .- .d ther. fn t,w n£l)f.JUCK_ • Ant 2, " Bona · . cucu~tc.,_1946-49) ; (political and id.cologic ~ _ffi
L>c)'ond t.1ic c-dgc a.nd most p.i..~cd rcad1ly frolJI one s1 c to an.o - (1940), 3)-49. D pa,o,n, ""1 D'jb1onhip." s,.,; All~•• Qwrtnly,
- - ":c. - - [ b the ourcasu .....
mm cru:1e was no rmal- a l.-ind of settling o accouncs ctw~c.!!_. - - tarirotio11 l95i) .
(Paris, B.-.cca, Lts
EOMINlQUE /dfo politiques en France 1ous la
.-:..
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and the
x,~Ct ) ~.lt had no pla--;;- for thc.m. _It \VJS onl y another step to 0
1/!1;818," in Ricn., 0 H ' " c,.,,ADOCJA, "Th, lib«.J, and M,d,m, d, Sue!
______..;._
°
rcvoluoo~ mm sert§ig_Qf accounts. .
✓ The c.:inneciion ia tS...,O between misecy..,__both econom•~!11'?!.al, an
d
t827,
C , 1965) ; 1.,., Po,'," ••~.
. of t hSlorr,a/
0
11.,,ou, T. P,...., («b.), IJ,.. ;, H"""'Y (Dudwn,
['I . . "Eng/i,I, HI . " •. Th, Go"'""""'"•d th, Pru, in Fnnce, 1822 to
LXVI (1955) • 51--66 ·• NORA E. Ht.'1>sos " The '¥""
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rejection bv socierv, on the one hand, and revoluti9n___<:>_!!_the other, h~ not . cuJat1on c Ul Rev,eiU,
o . ,; ' .
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been co.cclusi~ cJ.x_p1:ovcd, but there are a number of significant !mks.
Geognphically~there is a close correl.icion between the worst slums where
C" . I R .
)li,tonca '.'"t "•-~oy,l•r P.,,, on<k, th, Fncocl, Re,roncion, fag/oh
Xill{ (1934), 687-<;97 ; G,oac, A. Kn,_y, "L,1ocnfum md .,
i t ~.-
~~~
r!1e Pa.ri.s::.m s.ivagcs7.ivc·d out their miserable lives and_~ bitterest str_eci 5Ari>•"".'"Y '" ' ' P,en,h ~",ontlon, "}'"""1 ,J 1h, Hi,,,..,,fId,.,, lOCVJ (1965), j j. ~
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ns_hting ..!!Ll.l.30. A similar corrd-!_tio_n e.xists betweeny ~~_of high 09--JO, JEAN Loc,.,_oo,..-,o•• 1, c,1,, J, N.,.11,,,, 1815-1848 (Pun, 1960) ; : t: -=: __.,".E-
• 1·~
~cid.en~ of choler. in 1832. wltjch acucked the poorest quarters, and the fa,NX MANOEL, Th, N,w Wo,/J of Hor,; S,i,r-S/mo, (Bo,ron, 19'..6); Sum,y L -·a
strec_t fi#:ing in June of tlut ye:n.. ,. . - •
.,.-Here we arc:-E ce to face with insurrection that sprang not from simple
·
M£I.LON, The Political Uses of History: & Study of Historians in tlu Frtnd,
l!t•or•tion (Stanfo,d, C,1;£, 1958) ; (ncligiom) S1MoN D,uaooc, LA Ria,g.,,;,.,;,, ' n~
!~
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economic distress. It wisili.e protcstottheouteisfagwiit a sociery that had
dt fEgli,e d, F,.,., •p,~ fu Ri,o/,o"" (1801- 1809) (Pui,, 1962); &.-mr 5EVUN, i:~
no hononbJe p]a~ fo~ him and his children. Perhaps, JQ_o_juyai the action
u, M/55/on, "ligi,u,e, '" F,'"" "" fu 11,• .,,.,,,., 1815-1830, 2 vol (P,n\ t~
t 948-59); CHARI.Es H. PourRAs, L'Eglist et Its questions religitusts SOllS la monardnt , I, -
of the rootless, amoral individual who in existing socienr_c o u l ~ constit11tiot1nefle (1814-1848) (Paris 1961).
expression only in violc:ncc.,
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"The Myth of the French Revolution of 1830," in DAVID H. Pn-.'XNEY and·
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j THEODORE ROPP (eds.), A Festschri_ft for Fredm'ck B. Artz (Durham, N.C.,
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1964) ; Hux PONTE.IL, La Monarchie parleme11taire (Paris, 1949)"; SOUTADI,-
Rouvn. " Les Notables en France sous la Restauration," Rtvue d'/1istoirt
tconomur~ tt sodale, XXXVIII {1960), 98-110 ; JOHN HAu. STEWART, Thi
Restorati,~ Era in France: 18U-1830 {Princeton, 1968) ; GEORGES Wau, Histoirt .
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d11 parri_ripublicain en Fr,mce (1814-1870) (Paris, 1928) ; Special : (diplomatic) ..
1 GtJII.UD~ DE BEitTlll DE SAl!VlCNY, France and tlrt E11ropea11 Alliat1ce, /816-1821
(Notre Dame, Ind., 1958) ; l:i.ENRY A. KlssJNGER, A World Restored: .\fattemidt,
j: Castlereagh and tht Problems of PeOlt, 1812-22 (Boston, 1957) ; Hu.ow ll
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