What factor contributed to poverty and malnutrition in pre-revolutionary France?

What factor contributed to poverty and malnutrition in pre-revolutionary France?

• A. High taxes
• B. Wars drained resources
• C. Wildly growing population and bad harvest
• D. Poor leadership

Answer: (C)

Food supply pressures from population growth and harvest failures were the immediate driver of poverty and malnutrition in the years before the Revolution. As the population expanded, more people relied on bread as the everyday staple. A sequence of bad harvests reduced the grain available for sale, driving up bread prices just as real incomes for peasants and the urban poor were under strain. That combination—more mouths to feed and less food to go around—meant many families could not afford enough to eat, leading to widespread hunger and malnutrition. While heavy taxes and costly wars did drain resources and weak leadership can worsen crises, the clearest link to the widespread hunger at the time is the togetherness of growing demand for food and repeated harvest failures.

Food supply pressures from population growth and harvest failures were the immediate driver of poverty and malnutrition in the years before the Revolution. As the population expanded, more people relied on bread as the everyday staple. A sequence of bad harvests reduced the grain available for sale, driving up bread prices just as real incomes for peasants and the urban poor were under strain. That combination—more mouths to feed and less food to go around—meant many families could not afford enough to eat, leading to widespread hunger and malnutrition. While heavy taxes and costly wars did drain resources and weak leadership can worsen crises, the clearest link to the widespread hunger at the time is the togetherness of growing demand for food and repeated harvest failures.