When Antoine was a prisoner of war, he discovered the nutritional value of potatoes. But at the time, they were considered animal feed, and people avoided them, believing they could cause disease.
To overcome this prejudice, he served potato dishes at lavish dinners for influential figures like Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier.
To create demand, he planted potato fields and had guards protect them. This gave the impression they were valuable, and he even instructed the guards to accept bribes and allow people to “steal” the potatoes. This turned potatoes into a sought-after commodity in Europe.
Frederick the Great did the same when he found people uninterested in potatoes. He planted fields around Berlin and stationed soldiers to guard them in full view, making the crop seem so valuable that people couldn’t resist “stealing” it.
At Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, where Frederick the Great is buried, there’s a vineyard nearby. Even today, visitors leave potatoes on his tombstone as a tribute.
Both legends understood the power of scarcity to change human behavior.