Prevention and repression : food supply and public order in early modern Madrid

Résumé En

In early modern Madrid, food supply and public order inevitably became a matter involving the state. The Spanish Crown responded to these challenges by mobilizing two institutions : the Council of Castile and the Chamber of Magistrates of the Royal Household and Court. Officers of both institutions tried to prevent social disorders and food riots through an interventionist and centralised model of provisioning. However, social and financial costs of this system soon proved excessive : on the one hand, the cheap bread of Madrid was paid for by rural producers and urban consumers, while on the other, the need for public subsidies worsened the financial difficulties of the royal and municipal Exchequers. After the failure of this traditional system, and rising levels of crime and poverty registered in Madrid, the absolutist state ended up with only means of preventing and repressing public disorders : the increase of police control over the city, by endowing the Chamber of Magistrates and the Royal Army with more coercive powers.