IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04367715.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Was Labrousse Wrong? Seasonality of Grain Transactions in French Marketplaces during the July Monarchy
[Labrousse avait-il tort ? La saisonalité des transactions sur les marchés des grains en France durant la Monarchie de Juillet]

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Bourgeois

    (SAMM - Statistique, Analyse et Modélisation Multidisciplinaire (SAmos-Marin Mersenne) - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

  • Laurent Herment

    (CRH (UMR 8558 CNRS / EHESS) - Centre de Recherches Historiques (CRH) _ Unité Mixte de Recherches (UMR 8558 CNRS / EHESS) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

With a few exceptions, historians have conceded since the work of Labrousse (1932) that grain markets are characterized by a strong seasonality linked to the need for farmers to sell their wheat quickly after harvest. As recent works indicate, the analysis of price movements makes it difficult both to understand the motivations of the stakeholders and to account for the pace of trade. Using statistical methods applied to volumes on 13 markets located in the supply area of the Paris Basin between 1828 and 1852, the analysis of transactions makes it possible to affirm that the phenomena of seasonality are not universal and that they only very imperfectly reflect the functioning of the cereal markets, in particular for maslin, oats and barley, which sometimes represent the bulk of transactions. Seasonality phenomena only concern certain markets, linked to the main trade routes. This study also makes it possible to demonstrate that the modernization of the grain trade in the Paris Basin precedes the establishment of the rail network. It shows too that such modernization is based on the modernization of the local road network and, to a certain extent, on the elimination of traditional markets, particularly for oats. Finally, it makes it possible to propose a typology of markets that takes into account not only the importance of transactions, but their inclusion in regional exchange systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Bourgeois & Laurent Herment, 2023. "Was Labrousse Wrong? Seasonality of Grain Transactions in French Marketplaces during the July Monarchy [Labrousse avait-il tort ? La saisonalité des transactions sur les marchés des grains en Franc," Post-Print hal-04367715, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04367715
    DOI: 10.26882/histagrar.089e09h
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-04367715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-04367715/document
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26882/histagrar.089e09h?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David S. Jacks & Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2011. "Commodity Price Volatility and World Market Integration since 1700," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 800-813, August.
    2. Christophe Mimeur & François Queyroi & Arnaud Banos & Thomas Thévenin, 2018. "Revisiting the structuring effect of transportation infrastructure: An empirical approach with the French railway network from 1860 to 1910," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 65-81, April.
    3. Giovanni Federico, 2012. "How much do we know about market integration in Europe?," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(2), pages 470-497, May.
    4. Derek Headey & Shenggen Fan, 2008. "Anatomy of a crisis: the causes and consequences of surging food prices," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(s1), pages 375-391, November.
    5. John Komlos & Richard Landes, 1991. "Anachronistic economics: grain storage in medieval England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 44(1), pages 36-45, February.
    6. Grantham, George, 1989. "Agricultural Supply During the Industrial Revolution: French Evidence and European Implications," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 43-72, March.
    7. Nielsen, Randall, 1997. "Storage and English Government Intervention in Early Modern Grain Markets," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(1), pages 1-33, March.
    8. Ejrnaes, Mette & Persson, Karl Gunnar, 1999. "Grain Storage in Early Modern Europe," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(03), pages 762-772, September.
    9. Jill E. Hobbs, 2020. "Food supply chains during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 68(2), pages 171-176, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liam Brunt & Edmund Cannon, 2022. "English farmers’ wheat storage and sales in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 932-959, August.
    2. George Grantham, 2010. "What'S Space Got To Do With It? Distance And Agricultural Productivity Before The Railway Age," Departmental Working Papers 2010-04, McGill University, Department of Economics.
    3. Alexander Pütz & Pierre L. Siklos & Christoph Sulewski, 2019. "“Who pays the piper calls the tune” – Networks and transaction costs in commodity markets," CQE Working Papers 8819, Center for Quantitative Economics (CQE), University of Muenster.
    4. Christophe Gouel, 2012. "Agricultural Price Instability: A Survey Of Competing Explanations And Remedies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 129-156, February.
    5. Magali Dauvin, 2016. "Sovereign spreads in emerging economies: do natural resources matter?," EconomiX Working Papers 2016-11, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    6. Jianqing Ruan & Qingwen Cai & Songqing Jin, 2021. "Impact of COVID‐19 and Nationwide Lockdowns on Vegetable Prices: Evidence from Wholesale Markets in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(5), pages 1574-1594, October.
    7. Fang, Da & Guo, Yan, 2022. "Flow of goods to the shock of COVID-19 and toll-free highway policy: Evidence from logistics data in China," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Sam Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn, 2009. "Carbon markets in space and time," GRI Working Papers 3, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    9. Blake-Rath, Robyn & Grote, Ulrike, 2022. "Resilienz und Digitalisierung in der deutschen Agrarwirtschaft: Lehren aus der COVID-19-Pandemie," 62nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 7-9, 2022 329610, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    10. Brahmbhatt, Milan & Canuto, Otaviano & Vostroknutova, Ekaterina, 2010. "Dealing with Dutch Disease," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 16, pages 1-7, June.
    11. Oludele Akinloye Akinboade & Segun Adeyemi Adeyefa, 2018. "An Analysis of Variance of Food Security by its Main Determinants Among the Urban Poor in the City of Tshwane, South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 61-82, May.
    12. Karakotsios, Achillefs & Katrakilidis, Constantinos & Kroupis, Nikolaos, 2021. "The dynamic linkages between food prices and oil prices. Does asymmetry matter?," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    13. Zahra Fozouni Ardekani & Seyed Mohammad Javad Sobhani & Marcelo Werneck Barbosa & Ehsan Amiri-Ardekani & Samaneh Dehghani & Najmeh Sasani & Hans De Steur, 2024. "Determinants of household food waste behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran: an integrated model," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(10), pages 26205-26235, October.
    14. Tokic, Damir, 2011. "Rational destabilizing speculation, positive feedback trading, and the oil bubble of 2008," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 2051-2061, April.
    15. Nouf Alsharif & Sambit Bhattacharyya & Maurizio Intartaglia, 2016. "Economic Diversification in Resource Rich Countries: Uncovering the State of Knowledge," Working Paper Series 09816, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. Mario J. Crucini & Gregor W. Smith, 2016. "Distance and Time Effects in Swedish Commodity Prices, 1732–1914," NBER Working Papers 22175, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Gore, Christopher D., 2018. "How African cities lead: Urban policy innovation and agriculture in Kampala and Nairobi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 169-180.
    18. Laura Panza, 2012. "Globalisation and the Ottoman Empire: A study of integration between Ottoman and world cotton markets," Working Papers 2012.01, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    19. Bernardina Algieri, 2014. "A roller coaster ride: an empirical investigation of the main drivers of the international wheat price," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(4), pages 459-475, July.
    20. Hovhannisyan, Vardges, 2016. "New Evidence On The Structure Of Food Demand In China: An Easi Demand Model Estimated Via Panel Data Techniques," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236889, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    grain markets; France; 19 th century; seasonality; mercados de grãos; século XIX; sazonalidade.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04367715. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.