Foods, their composition and analysis : a manual for the use of analytical chemists and others ; with an introductory essay on the history of adulteration / Alexander Wynter Blyth ... and Meredith Wynter Blyth.

  • Alexander Wynter Blyth
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Foods, their composition and analysis : a manual for the use of analytical chemists and others ; with an introductory essay on the history of adulteration / Alexander Wynter Blyth ... and Meredith Wynter Blyth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the word of a seller, and there was hardly any class in which a man might not with reason suspect that his neighbour intended to rob or even to murder him.” 1 Assizes of Bread—Bakers. § 3. The sale of bread was regulated in England as early as the fourth year of the reign of John, by what was called the ‘Assize of Bread,’ the original object of which was to regulate the price of bread by limiting the profit of the baker on eacli quarter of wheat, so that the price of the loaf should bear a certain proportion to the price of the quarter of wheat. The assize of John’s reign continued in force until 1286, when it was repealed by 1 The Statute of Assize.’ There were various modifications of these assizes, and they were finally abolished in 1815. The ‘Assize of Bread’ in its influence was probably the exact reverse of what was intended. On the one hand, the develop- ment of trade was restricted injudiciously, and, on the other, the bakers often suffered unjustly, and, therefore, had a direct inducement to recover their losses by nefarious practices. Although, at the institution of the assize, adulteration with foreign substances was not the main object of the regulations, yet, as time went on, and the sins of the bakers, both male and female,2 accumulated, clauses with regard to the adulteration of bread were inserted, and the later ones may be considered collectively as the ancient English ‘Sale of Food Act.’ The assize of 1582 3 contained the followingIf there be any that by false meanes useth to sell meale : for the first time he shall be grievously punished, the second tyme he shall lose his meale: the III tyme he shall foreswere the towne, and so likewyse the bakers that offende. Also, bouchers that sell mesell porke or mozen flesche : for the first time they shall be grievously amerced, for the second tyme so offendinge they shall have the judgement of the pillory, for the third tyme they shall be comytted to pryson until ransomed, and the fourth tyme they shall forswere the towne, and thus ought other trans- gressors to be punished, as cooks, forestalled, regrators of the markets when the cookes serve, roste, bake, or any otlierwyse dresse, fysche or flesche unwholesome for man’s body.” The assize of 1634 had some stringent regulations with regard to musty meal:—“ If there be any manner of person or persons, which shall by any false wayes or meanes, sell any meale unto the hinge’s subjects, either by mixing it deceitfully or [sell any] musty or corrupted meal, which may be to the hurte and infection of man’s body, or use any false weight, or any deceitful wayes or meanes, and so deceive the subject, for the first offence he shall be grievously punished, the second he shall lose his meale, for the third offence he shall suffer the judgement of the pillory, and the fourth time he shall forswere the towne wherein he dwelleth.” These extracts give some idea of the punishments inflicted on dishonest bakers during the Middle Ages in England. First offences were often visited by corporal chastisement and exposure in the pillory (generally with a rope and a loaf round the neck); fourth, and even third, convictions 1 A History of Crime, by Luke Owen Pike. 2 The bakers, as well as the brewers, were of both sexes. 3 The title runs: “Here beginneth the boke named the assyse of bread, what it ought to weye, after the pryce of a quarter of wheat, also the assize of ale, with all manner ot wood and cole, lath, bolside, and tymbur, and the weight of butter and cheese. Imprynted, by Thomas Wyatt, 1582.”