France’s Free Market Reforms in 1774–6 and Russia’s in the 1990s: The Immediate Relevance of the Abbé de Condillac’s Analysis

The great reforming minister whose appointment had been greeted with acclamation did what leading contemporary economists had been advocating for over a decade. Markets were freed, and above all the market for food. Farmers were allowed to sell for the best prices they could find. The cost of food rose sharply and riots followed. A so-called ‘Parlement’ met and passed a resolution that it was the state’s responsibility to provide food at prices the people could afford. The minister found this subversive, had the posters announcing the resolution placarded over, and imprisoned rioters with the full support of the Head of State. The minister then issued further edicts which removed the obligation on workers to provide forced labour, and threatened the privileges of those who were making personal fortunes from financing the state. By this point he had alienated those in the cities who had to pay more for food, those who relied upon forced labour, those who had been most prosperous under the previous régime and those who preferred orderly government to radical reforms which produced riots. After just twenty months the Head of State removed the reforming minister, and replaced him with another who reversed his policies. The reestablishment of the previous régime proved unviable and it was swept away a little over a decade later, and the Head of State who had been prepared to support his reforming minister for only 20 months was executed.