Famines in 17th and 18th-century France

Engaged in a long-running conflict (1688-1714) that prevented it from importing cereals, France experienced two major crises: 1692-1693 and 1709-1710. Their management was hampered by a lack of memory of past crises. These famines decimated the population: in the first one, 1.3 million more deaths (54,000 deaths/month) than normal; in the second one, 300,000 more deaths, as the famine had been limited thanks to spring barley. Measures designed to relieve the needy returned in 1740, but the mortality rate recorded at that time wiped out the demographic recovery.