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

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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 / by Alexander Wynter Blyth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    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# contained the following :—“ If 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 grevously 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 transgressors to be punished as cooks, forestallers, regrators of the markets when the cookes, serve, roste, bake or any otherwyse 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 kinge’s subjects, either by mixing it deceitfully or [sell any] musty and corrupted meal, which may be to the hurte and infec- tion 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 were considered so heinous that it was thought better to cast the man forth from the city to earn his livelihood elsewhere. In the curious paper entitled “A Quip for an Upstart Courtier,”+ there is a powerful and quaint expostulation with the different traders:—“And for you goodman baker, you that love to be seen in the open market-place upon the pillory, the world cries out on your wiliness: you crave but one deere yeare to make your daughter a gentlewoman. You buy your corne at the best hand, * 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 of wood and cole, lath, bolside, and tymber, and the weight of butter and cheese. Imprynted, by Thomas Wyatt, 1582.” f The “Quip for an Upstart Courtier” was written in 1592. The original is in black letter.