An Inquiry Into Masses Mentalities Of The British Food Riots In The18th Century

Food riots are collective public behavior, which are most common and most widely existed in England in the18th and19th Centuries, they have the discipline and clear goals. People gather up for the resistance to high grain and food prices, forcibly occupy the grain of farmer, miller or merchant, and buy the food according to the customs at fair and reasonable prices in their own mind. Food riots and moral economy are inseparable. Moral economy is a social revolt culture contained in the long tradition of the England lower classes, it has existed in the public consciousness for a long time, and the lower people here refer to the ordinary working classes as the representative of peasant and handicraftsman. Moral economy was introduced by E.P. Thompson firstly in interpreting of food riots and is widely applied to other research fields and disciplines now. Moral economy originated from the old awareness of England people about justice, it’s specific root is difficult to dates back clearly and exactly, but Thompson is the first scholar who use the term "moral economy" to explain the food riots.On the one hand, food riots depend on some objective factors, such as food scarcity or excessively high prices, on the other hand, it seems that people’s idea and perception play a more important role in them. Moral economy explores the food riots from the non-economic factors and opens a new perspective for us to understand the food riots. Psychohistory is a method of research which borrows and applys the means of psychological analysis to the psychological study of historical figures and groups, investigating mental state and psychological state of the people in history. It pays attention to the psychological research on historical figures and groups, focus on people’s mental activities and mental changes, including the extensive and profound impact they produce to the course of history.Moral economy is a kind of psychology consciousness which rising to the moral dimension, but the moral economy generalizes people’s mentalities and mind on the whole, so it seems too abstract, neglects some other important elements, because panic, anger and the sense of legitimation have important influence on food riots, also. And these mentalities do not work alone, but intertwine, influence mutually, embodied in the food riots together.Panic is the most immediate response. Food is directly related to people’s daily lives, the instinct to protect their own survival interests would make people produce a sense of panic firstly. Tightly, comes the public indignation and anger, for their stable lives being forced to change and being fluctuately, anger is a more direct and external emotional expression for people. Furthermore, the sense of legitimation and moral economy are more important, given that they are deeper mentalities with which they can justify themselves, support their actions, and their actions confirm and deepen these mentalities and minds in turn. They are aroused each other, people seeking supports of mind from the previous case of food riots, then they would consolidate and intensify these minds on the basis of their actions, and make them more solid and deeply rooted among the people.At the same time, they are inseparably and supplementarily with the consciousness of legitimacy and the moral economy. Caused by the fluctuation in emotion, people have to think what to do next, so they would seek help from mind and try to make them official and extensive. So, supported by the sense of legitimation and the moral economy, people will be more excited. In addition, moral economy supports and strengthens the sense of legitimation in a sense, they promote each other. Morality makes it legal and legalitimation makes it more rational and necessary in moral. Law and morality are both social regulation and normative. The law is guaranteed by the state force, but morality is mainly to be implemented through the public opinion and self-regulation. However, once these minds can not work well, taking actions to safeguard people’s interests by themselves has become the only way. But the mentalities and minds depend on the historical facts and the specific events after all, with the decline of food riots in the middle and late19th Century, the minds of people also gradually faded out of the group consciousness.