Monday 2013-04-08
This may be complete fiction:
William Shakespeare was fined repeatedly for illegally hoarding grain, malt and barley for resale during a time of food shortages.
... the playwright's funeral monument in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church reflected this. The original monument erected after his death in 1616 showed Shakespeare holding a sack of grain. In the 18th century, it was replaced with a more "writerly" memorial depicting Shakespeare with a tasseled cushion and a quill pen.
This seems like eminently correct civil disobedience: people would starve otherwise, so save grain during times of plenty, and sell it in times of dearth. Local government will fine-tax the profits and presumably use the proceeds to feed the poor. Because of his actions everyone is better off.