HiSCoD

Description (langue originale) : -

Description (anglais) : The 'Grande-Rebeine' of Lyon occured in April 1529. The problem wass not dearth but selfish hoarding, without which there would be enough grain to go around. Rioters suggested that a potential solution was, not a distribution of grain or the regulation of prices as we might expect, but an implicit punishment of the 'usurers' and 'crooks'. This was political anger, retaliation for a year of treachery on the part of the merchant-speculator leaders who were known to have struck deals to profit from the export of grain. A mixed, disorderly crowd of up to a thousand men, women and children, mostly from the lower ranks, actually did gather in the square in front of the Cordeliers. They broke into the monastery, rang the tocsin for several hours and pillaged the premises. They broke doors and windows, smashing furniture, dishes and other things. They went on to the nearby residence of Pierre Morin, a rich merchant, where they carried off a quantity of grain from the attic and emptied the wine cellar, drinking large quantities and dumping the rest in the street. Then, on to the properties of Laurent du Cornal and the Gimbre brothers, and to the Hotel de Ville, where they threatened the keeper of the city archives. The Grande Rebeine of Lyon was primarily about retribution and secondarily about access to grain Some of the perpetrators, probably artisans, possibly masons, were literate and knew what was going on in other cities. A vindictive attack on the property of local leaders set the stage for a grain riot in which a broad range of people joined in emptying the municipal stocks.