The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question 1700-1775

by Kaplan, Steven Laurence

• ISBN13: 9780822317067
• ISBN10: 0822317060
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-06-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

In preindustrial Europe, dependence on grain shaped every phase of life from economic development to spiritual expression, and the problem of subsistence dominated the everyday order of things in a merciless and unremitting way. Steven Laurence Kaplanrs"sThe Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 17001775focuses on the production and distribution of Francers"s most important commodity in the sprawling urban center of eighteenth-century Paris where provisioning needs were most acutely felt and most difficult to satisfy. Kaplan shows how the relentless demand for bread constructed the pattern of daily life in Paris as decisively and subtly as elaborate protocol governed the social life at Versailles. Despite the overpowering salience of bread in public and private life, Kaplanrs"s is the first inquiry into the ways bread exercised its vast and significant empire. Bread framed dreams as well as nightmares. It was the staff of life, the medium of communion, a topic of common discourse, and a mark of tradition as well as transcendence. In his exploration of breadrs"s materiality and cultural meaning, Kaplan looks at breadrs"s fashioning of identity and examines the conditions of supply and demand in the marketplace. He also sets forth a complete history of the bakers and their guild, and unmasks the methods used by the authorities in their efforts to regulate trade. Because the bakers and their bread were central to Parisian daily life, Kaplanrs"s study is also a comprehensive meditation on an entire society, its government, and its capacity to endure. Long-awaited by French history scholars,The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 17001775is a landmark in eighteenth-century historiography, a book that deeply contextualizes, and thus enriches our understanding of one of the most important eras in European history.

Author Biography

Steven Laurence Kaplan is Goldwin Smith Professor of European History at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Bread: Demand and Supply

Breadways

Bread Making

Baker Shops and Bread Markets

The Forain World

Bread on Credit

Bakers: Social Structure and Life Cycle

The Guild

From Apprentice to Journeyman

At Work

The Journeyman's World Outside the Shop

Establishment

Marriage Strategies and Family Life

Fortune

Bakers as Debtors

Failure

Reputation

Police of Bread and Bakers

Primer to Policing: Figuring Supply and Consumption

The Police of Bakers

Setting the Price of Bread

Policing the Price of Bread, 1725-1780

Conclusion

Appendixes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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