<P> While there were documented efforts to deal with the grain shortage problems, such as increasing shipments from foreign countries, beliefs that the famine was intentionally orchestrated by Louis XVI, through the "Pacte de Famine", emerged . Turgot repressed the riots and restored controls over the grain market . The idea of free trade of grain was discredited and the economic experiment distanced the masses from the government in Versailles . The Flour War can be seen as a prelude to the French Revolution . </P> <P> The fear of famine became an ever - present dread for the lower strata of the Third Estate, and rumors of the "Pacte de Famine" to starve the poor were still rampant and readily believed . Mere rumors of food shortage led to the Réveillon riots in April 1789 . Rumors of a plot aiming to destroy wheat crops in order to starve the population provoked the Great Fear in the summer of 1789 . The hunger and despair of the Parisian women was also the original impetus for the Women's March on Versailles in October 1789, they wanted not just one meal but the assurance that bread would once again be plentiful and cheap . </P> <P> The two years prior to the revolution (1788--89) saw meager harvests and harsh winters, possibly because of a strong El Niño cycle caused by the 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland . The Little Ice Age also affected farmers' choices of crops to plant; in other parts of Europe, peasant farmers had adopted the potato as its staple crop . The potato had been introduced to France during the 16th century and despite resistance had largely supplanted the turnip and rutabaga in France . Despite encouragement from individuals like Antoine Parmentier and Louis XVI, grain was still a much more popular staple crop in France . This was partially because potatoes were seen as more difficult to transport and store than grain . </P> <P> H.F. Helmolt argued that the issue was not so much the debt per se, but the way the debt was refracted through the lens of Enlightenment principles and the increasing power of third - estate creditors, that is, commoners who held the government's paper . </P>

What were the main causes of the french revolution explain