Grain as a Weapon? Britain's Scheme to Starve Revolutionary France, 1793–1796

Abstract

abstract:During Britain's transition to war against Revolutionary France in 1793, the administration of William Pitt expanded Britain's traditional military embargoes on enemy commerce to include grain—a policy that redefined "military stores" to include foods alongside other materials required for warfare. The goal of this blockade was to use starvation as a political weapon for ending the war by forcing France's National Convention to decide between feeding its civilian population and feeding its armies. The policy never received full support in London, however, and the National Convention in France prioritized feeding its soldiers over its people. Although the British effort to manipulate Europe's international food system to serve Britain's diplomatic and military ends was largely a failure, the redefinition of grain as military material reshaped the significance of food and agricultural geography in European military strategy at the turn of the nineteenth century.