Maximum Price Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Maximum Price Act, or loi du maximum général, was a French law passed by the National Convention on September 29, 1793, which established the maximum legal prices of grain. It succeeded to the May 4, 1793 loi du maximum which had the same purpose. Confronted to the high inflation provoked by the depreciation of the assignats, the Parisian sans-culottes imposed to the National Convention this law which established maximum prices on first necessity goods and blocked wages (as the increase of wages mechanically created inflation). It was supposed to counter the food shortages observed in revolutionary France besieged by its neighbours.

Although it varied according to each region, the maximum price for first necessity goods was about one third higher than the 1790 prices, while the legal maximum fixed to the wages was about half higher than the average level in 1790. However, this law had in fact the reverse effects than expected. The peasants started hiding their harvest in order to avoid having to sell them at low prices, while speculators hurried to buy all they could. Thus, the food shortage were actually worsened, partly because the blocking of the salaries was much easier to enact than the blocking of the prices. The National Convention's attempt to impede the failure of the law on the general maximum by repressing, detaining and executing those who didn't respect it contributed to make of it one of the symbols of the Terror. The law thus provoked a popular discontent which brought its repeal on December 24, 1794, by the Thermidorian Convention.