Linking household-level grain reserves from the survey to the GIStorical Antwerp 1584 dataset enables an analysis of buffers in kind in relation to households’ socio-economic characteristics. As expected, stock holding aligned with wealth and with grain-related professions. The results show great inequality in coping capacity, primarily in the distinction between very few ‘haves’ and many ‘have-nots’. Inequality is also manifest in the prominence of the ‘crisis crop’ buckwheat, not only in the few small grain reserves held by lower-class households but also in the usually more diverse stocks of the well-to-do. The results of the grain survey should not be viewed in isolation from other coping mechanisms and specific circumstances of time and place. Antwerp’s size and location made it highly dependent on the international grain trade. This situation  served the city well in peace time but imposed serious risks when crop failure, war and blockade occurred simultaneously.