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041 _afre
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aBéaur, Gérard
_eauthor
245 0 0 _aSpeculating on Wheat Prices. The End-of-Harvest-Year Hunger Gap and the Storage of Chartres Grains as a Key Challenge, 1748-1790
260 _c2023.
500 _a99
520 _aThe recurrent phenomenon of the end-of-harvest-year hunger gap and the fabulous profits made by grain producers on these occasions are part of the generally accepted conceptions of all those who focus on the functioning of grain markets. However, this conventional wisdom is now being challenged and needs to be questioned afresh. This article intends to reverse the current perspective by looking at the actors and the logic that drives their actions, and thus questions the conditions for successful speculation. By mobilising data from the Chartres mercuriale for half a century, the aim is to review the very principle of seasonal price movements, to decipher the anticipations of sellers within the framework of a harvest year and to measure their degree of foresight with regard to the future harvest. Even if the profits generated by the exploitation of the hunger gap are put into perspective, it is also necessary to take into account the risks they incur and the costs they suffer when they favour practices of storing and withholding grain for speculative purposes, the timely and systematically advantageous nature of which is questionable.
690 _astorage
690 _aspeculation
690 _a18th century
690 _aChartres
690 _agrain markets
690 _aprices
690 _ahunger gap
690 _aFrance
690 _astorage
690 _aspeculation
690 _a18th century
690 _aChartres
690 _agrain markets
690 _aprices
690 _ahunger gap
690 _aFrance
786 0 _nRevue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine | o 70-1 | 1 | 2023-02-28 | p. 54-88 | 0048-8003
856 4 1 _uhttps://shs.cairn.info/journal-revue-d-histoire-moderne-et-contemporaine-2023-1-page-54?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080
999 _c565008
_d565008