Thomas Tryon, one of the first vegetarians to
advocate his beliefs in print, was a great lover of and believer in bread. In
1691 he wrote:
Bread and Water hath the first
place of all Foods …[on] Bread, with a Glass of Water, a Man may
live very well, which a Friend of mine of no mean Quality have done for near
Two years, eating neither Flesh, nor any of their Fruits…Bread and Butter,
Bread and Cheese being eaten alone, or with Salad Herbs washed, without either
Salt, Oil or Vinegar, makes a most excellent Food, of a cleansing exhilarating
Quality.[i]
While this writer’s extraordinary devotion to and reliance on bread is
not for everyone, it does help point to the critical place that bread had in the
English diet in earlier centuries, especially that of the non-noble
classes. Though I will be writing about
the role of bread in England seven hundred years ago, this type of diet is not
as far removed as one might think. One of
the staple of my mother’s diet when she was growing up in rural Alberta was
simple bread and milk. Probably because it was ubiquitous and meant the
difference between life and starvation, the English made bread the subject of
their most comprehensive and long-lasting laws.
The law was called the Assize of Bread, with assize being a decree or
edict that by the fourteenth century most often had to do with weights and
measures. James Davis, in an article
called “Baking for the Common Good: A Reassessment of the Assize of Bread in
Medieval England” printed in the August 2004 edition of The Economic History Review, gives a summary of the Assize on which
I rely in the following sentences. The law,
which remained uncharacteristically constant for hundreds of years, stated that
a loaf of bread would be sold a set price (most often a farthing or a
half-penny.) If the amount the baker had
to pay for his ingredients, most critically the grain for his flour, changed
then the size of the loaf not the price would fluctuate.
How and with what effect this was enforced is a matter of some debate
among scholars but the penalties for a baker not following the Assize were
severe. According to the statute, if an individual
was found guilty of making a loaf that was misshapen or not the right size, he
would be dragged through the street with the loaf about his neck. A second offense meant he was drawn through street
and then set upon the pillory (think the stocks that you see in a medieval
movie.) A third violation meant that the
baker’s oven was smashed and he was forbidden to bake again. Bread and its making was serious business.
[i]
From Wisdom's dictates, or, Aphorisms
& rules, physical, moral, and divine, for preserving the health of the
body, and the peace of the mind ... to which is added a bill of fare of seventy
five noble dishes of excellent food, for exceeding those made of fish or flesh, pp. 139-140.
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