ABSTRACT This article deals with the issue of population living conditions and the resulting social response in a very short inflationary conjuncture, created by an external shock. It focuses on the effects of the First World War – a cataclysm in the history of humanity that affected all spheres, from the geopolitical and social to the economic – on a particular region of eastern Spain: Catalonia. The article is structured into five main sections. It begins with a discussion of the never-ending debates on living conditions. It then addresses the characteristics of the First World War cycle; the war in Catalonia specifically, along with the trap of economic benefits (limited expansion and inflation) and the effects on the population; and the subsistence crisis in Catalonia and its devastating effects, before finally examining the unrest that led towards a ‘revolution of the stomachs’. The article uses an exceptional set of primary sources – letters intercepted by censors – containing personal testimonies of everyday experiences, feelings and reactions to events across social classes. It demonstrates correlations between economic indicators and individual testimonies, identifies and explains the seasonality of protest, and incorporates a gender perspective to show that women were at the forefront of this protest.