ENCYCLOPAEDIA of Rebellions

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Barcelona bread riots 1789

Synopsis
These bread riots (known in Catalonia as "rebomboris del pa") broke out in Barcelona on 28 February 1789. On that day, the authorities announced an increase in the price of bread, which provoked hundreds of women to take to the streets in protest. The uproar eventually brought together more than 8,000 people who stormed and burnt the bread stalls and the municipal oven (“pastim”). Their demand was to lower the price of bread to the previous year's price. The causes of the price increases can be traced back to the liberalisation of grain trade and transport (1765), the privatisation of the municipal oven (1768) and the agricultural crises that in 1787 and 1788 caused famines all over Europe. In addition to riots in Barcelona, there were also riots in other Catalan cities such as Vic and Mataró. The riot in Barcelona attacked the houses of the tenants of the bread factories and, in particular, of the Captain General, the Count of Asalto, who managed to flee while the troops protected his palace. After three days of revolt and heavy armed repression, the Captain General approved a reduction in the price of bread and, shortly afterwards, of other products such as meat, oil and wine. The repression after the revolt was fierce: a hundred people were deported and six were executed, including one woman, Josefa Vilaret "La Negreta", accused of being one of the instigators of the "rebomboris".
Additional info

Starting date: . Ending: . Duration: 3 days. Name in sources: Rebomboris del pa. Location: Barcelona Country (current): Spain. Monarchy: Spanish. Main participants: Artisans, Women, Workers. Number of participants: >500. Main reasons & motivations: Economic, Food, Political. Leadership: Josefa Vilaret "La Negreta". Relevance: low.

Further reading
CASTELLS OLIVÁN, Irene (1970). “Els rebomboris del pa de 1789 a Barcelona”. Recerques, 1: 51-81. MOREU-REY, Enric (1967). Revolució a Barcelona el 1789. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. PÉREZ SAMPER, María de los Ángeles (1999). “El pan en la Barcelona moderna: Poder municipal y abastecimiento”, in J. M. de Bernardo Ares (coord), La administración Municipal en la Edad Moderna. Cádiz: SPUC-AEHM, vol. 2, pp. 407-420.
Cite this entry

(2023) "Barcelona bread riots 1789", in J. V. Serrão and M. S. Cunha (coord), Rebellions in the Early Modern Iberian World. (accessed on ).