Bread
The importance of grains as a staple in the human diet is reflected by the number of laws regulating the sale and milling of grains and of bread production. England's Assize of Bread, the earliest English legislation regulating the price of bread, dates from the 51st year of reign of Henry III (1266). In force--at least in principle--for six centuries, the statute fixed the size, weight and price of loaves, in relation to the price of wheat.
The Assize was first enacted at a time when there was little trade in wheat; farmers grew just enough for their immediate neighborhoods. From year to year there could be great fluctuations in price depending on the harvest. Unscrupulous bakers could have increased the price of bread out of proportion to rising price of grain, and thousands would have starved, or perhaps taken vengeance on the bakers. Enforced by local bailiffs, these highly detailed regulations attempted to keep the populace fed while protecting bakers from a potentially angry mob. (See Paul Studer, The oak book of Southampton, of c. A.D. 1300. Southampton : Cox & Sharland, 1911.) Displayed here are four examples of the Assize of Bread dating from the early fourteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries, as well as grain or bread-related items from eighteenth century France and Boston, Massachusetts.
Magna carta cum statutis. English manuscript on vellum, early fourteenth century. Photograph of HLS Ms. 12.
Written less than 100 years after the Assize of Bread was first enacted, this copy of the Magna carta contains illuminated initials illustrating the substance of each statute. Shown here is a photograph from the beginning of the statute of bread and ale, l'assise du pain [et] servoyse, showing two round loaves of bread and a tankard of ale (regulations for beer and ale often followed the assize of bread). The original manuscript is in the Law Library's collection.
Here begynneth the boke named the assyse of breade, what it ought to weye after the pryce of a quarter of wheete. London : Robert Wyer, ca. 1540.
Facsimilie reprint, London : W.E. Ashbee, 1869.
These pages show the prices established for wheat and seven sizes and types of loaves. Wastell was the standard bread, made of fine white flour. It varied according to the price of wheat and was the basis for fixing the price of other kinds of bread. Simnel bread was the finest and richest of the breads; wheaten loaves were coarser than wastell, and household loaves were coarse brown breads made from meal with the bran intact.
The introduction to this work reiterates the basic standards for measuring grain; for example, thirty-two "cornes of wheete" from the middle of the ear as equal to the weight of an English "rounde peny sterling" and eight pounds of wheat as equal in weight to a gallon of wine. Bakers were to mark bread with their own sign--helpful in determining breakers of the assize--and only bakers or their servants only were allowed to sell the bread. The text also notes certain standards for bread baking, differences between the breads of London and Stratford, and outlines punishments for violations of the assize. For the first three offences, a baker was fined; after a fourth offense he received the "judgement of the pillory." If a baker persisted in charging too much, he could be forced to leave the town. Confiscated loaves were given to the poor.
John Powell. The assize of bread. Together with sundry good and needfull ordinances for bakers, brewers, inholders, victuakers, vinters, and butchers. London : William Stansby, 1630.
Like its predecessors, this edition of the Assize details the standards for prices of bread, as well as other necessities. Note the maxims above each of the illustrations of bakers at work.
Many of the same regulations still applied, with a few variations. Bakers were prohibited from selling spice cakes, buns and biscuits except for burials, and on the Friday before Easter and Christmas. If a baker raised his bread prices above a certain level, he was pilloried even for a first offense, "without any redemption, either by gold or silver."
Statutes at large, from the 30th to the 33d year of King George II. Cambridge : Joseph Bentham for Charles Bathurst, 1766.
31 George II, chapter 29:
An act for the due making of bread; and to regulate the price and assize thereof; and to punish persons who shall adulterate meal, flour, or bread.
This statute begins with a reference to Henry III's original statute. As this table shows, calculating the price of bread had not grown any simpler with the passage of time. Another table in this volume shows the price of breads made from rye, barley and oat flours, and from meals made from beans and peas. Bakers were to mark their breads with "W" for wheaten bread and "H" for household bread. This statute also addresses the practice of selling bread made with flour adulterated with alum or made with inferior flours and then sold as a better grade of bread. For these offenses bakers could be fined and have their names published in a local newspaper.
Arrest de la cour de Parlement, qui réduit à deux especes tout le pain qui se débite dans les marchez, & dans les boutiques des boulangers. Paris: Pierre Simon, 1725
This decree reduced the types of bread sold in Parisian markets and bakers' shops from four main grades to two. Specifically, the finest bread was to be made using half twice-milled white flour and half fine oat flour. The second grade of bread was to be made using half white flour and a combination of fine and coarse oat flour, including the bran. Failure to comply with this regulation could result in fines, confiscation of bread and ejection from the baking profession. This arrêt stipulated that confiscated bread be divided between the informer and the nearest hôpital.
Code de Louis XV. Grenoble : André Giroud, 1749.
In an effort to alleviate the scarcity of food due to several years of bad harvests, this law of October 1740 exempts wheat, rye, barley, oats, maslin, rice, beans and other vegetables from import duties. At the same time it declares that all back rents and debts payable in grain are to be paid in money and at a fixed rate.
Sentence de Police. Paris : N.H. Nyon, 1789
This ruling condemns 27 Parisian bread bakers to pay fines of 50 pounds each for having sold bread for more than the prescribed price. A 28th baker was fined 100 pounds for the same offense and for having sold bread at a false weight. This document goes on to explain that the bakers felt justified in raising bread prices when the price of flour went up. While acknowledging that bakers' prices and livelihoods were dependent on flour prices, the commissioners state that the winter had been a particularly rigorous one and that townspeople had come to the police for three days in a row with complaints about high bread prices.
The by-laws and town-orders of the town of Boston, made and passed at several meetings in 1785 and 1786. Boston : Edmund Freeman, 1786.
These laws established guidelines for the sale of imported wheat based on grade and weight, and called for the appointment of "measurers of grain" in every seaport town. These men were supplied with scales and weights based on the Winchester standard and charged to "weigh as many bushels as the buyer or seller shall desire." These laws also stipulated that millers in the towns of Boston, Roxbury and Charlestown " be provided with suitable mill stones, fans and skreens needful for the cleansing, well grinding and making good meal out of all sorts of English grain." The fines resulting from failure to comply with these various regulations were divided between the informer and the poor of the towns where the offenses were committed.