Database: Food Shortages & Riots

The shortage of bread was one of the driving factors behind the French Revolution. Droughts in the summer of 1788 caused the price of grain to skyrocket. In 1789 the price of one loaf of bread was more than half a day's pay for the common workers - and that's when there was bread to be had. One of the objectives of the Women's March in October 1789 was to demand bread from the King himself.*
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* What did they expect him to do? Buy a breadmaker? Whip up a wrap?
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Even after the revolution, food continued to be scarce. Trouble with crops, combined with a need to provide the army with bread led to a shortage across France. Merchants were accused of price fixing and food hoarding**, leading to riots in the marketplace. The newly-formed government tried to fix the problem by setting bread prices, but given that they fixed the price well below the cost of grain, this only fueled the problems it attempted to solve.
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** ... because the Templars were hoarding food and fixing prices. To cause riots. So that worked out well for them, didn't it?