After the fall of the Crispi government in 1896, a new administration was established under the leadership of Di Rudini. The new government was drawn almost entirely from the landed elite, and agrarian paternalism blinded it to the real nature of many of the urban, commercial and labour questions that confronted the country. The chasm between the ‘legal’ Italy of the state and the ‘real’ Italy of its citizens was the cause of the ‘end-of-century’ crisis whose most spectacular manifestation took place in Milan in 1898.

The government's most pressing problem was the rapid rise in bread prices and the public unrest which accompanied this. In 1897 just 23,891,000 quintals of grain were harvested in Italy, compared with figures between 31,798,000 and 39,920,000 for the previous five-year period. The shortfall had to be made up by imports, yet these were subject to a high protective tariff which the government was loath to reduce for fear of offending their supporters. Between them the dazio on grain and the dazio consume accounted for around 40% of the price of bread.

Bread prices rose sharply in Milan as elsewhere. The retail price of prime-quality bread in the interno was 30 centesimi per libra at the beginning of April 1897, 34 centesimi at the end of May, and 36 centesimi at the end of July, and it had reached 38 centesimi by January 1898.