All Bread Is Not Created Equal

Jessica Banks, Penn State Medieval Studies Program

As staples of life in medieval Europe, the state deemed only two foods important enough to legislate -- bread and beer. This was done through assize or assise laws, which usually came in one of two ways: a separate law of bread assize and law of beer assize, or a combined law of bread and beer assizes. These laws dictated the grades of flour purity, based on bran content and mixture of grains; weight of baked loaves, by measurements of silver currency (pound, shilling, pence, half- and quarter-penny loaves); and adulteration of the bread with inedible substances, such as sawdust or hemp. The prices were set by the state on behalf of the consumer, to prevent powerful bakers' and brewers' guilds from using their monopolies to gouge the hungry public. Those who violated the assize laws were subject to the king's justice, usually in the form of a fine.

As towns formed in the midst of the population boom of the Central and High Middle Ages, noblemen often wrote bread- and grain-related laws or stipulations into the founding charters of their cities. The charter of Winchester, England includes a simplified version of an assize law, guaranteeing at least a specific weight for white and dark breads in that town.[1] Other charters sometimes offered generous advantages to townspeople, as an enticement to emigrate to that growing city. We can see this in the charters of Lorris, France and Jaca, Spain in the form of free access to mills or communal ovens, something which, at home on the countryside manors of noble landlords, was dictated by the landlord and cost a fee.[2]

Later, when the first generations of colonists began to establish themselves in America, they looked back to their homelands for ideas of what kinds of laws were necessary to establish a peaceful, orderly society. In some colonies, such as Georgia, they adopted the medieval tradition of assize laws, since bread was still a significant part of the daily diet. Compared side by side, the similarities between the English Bread Assizes from the Reigns of Henry II to Edward II and the Act for Regulating the Assize of Bread from the Legislature of Georgia are striking. For example, the Georgian Assize says the following:

In comparison, the English law likewise lays out three classes of bread: Wastel, Simnel, and Cocket, from highest to lowest in quality, with the lowest quality expected to weigh the most, because of highest bran content. A fourth kind, a bread of Treet, or dessert bread, is also mentioned, but would have been a more irregular purchase, not a menu staple like the other three. The English law also specifies the grades of flour that would be used in each kind of bread, as does the Georgian law.[4]

A few interesting differences present themselves in the Georgian assize law, however, mainly in the form of enforcement and punishment. Georgian bakers are required to make an identification mark on their bread, so its origin is apparent, and their bakeries, shops, warehouses, even their homes, are required to be open for inspection by the justices of the peace at any time, night or day! Refusing or hindering these searches could cost a baker a fine of five Pounds Sterling, to be given to the local poor charities -- no matter whether or not he were actually hiding any crime or wrongdoing!

If any bread is found to be in violation of the law, not only is the baker to be brought up on charges which could lead to a fine of up to twenty shillings, but all the baker's bread is confiscated by the justices and distributed to the local poor charities. This punishment could be incurred by bakers guilty of just not putting their stamp on a batch of loaves -- they might not have done a single thing wrong with the bread itself! One stopgap measure did exist on behalf of the bakers, though. The justices had only three days to prosecute a case from the time when the offending loaf was found. After that time, the complaint was invalid, and the justices would have to watch and wait for the next infraction.

However, if certain features of this law sound to you as if they were at odds with the ideals of the fledgling colonies -- little things like life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and a fair dollar -- you're not the only one. To many colonial bakers trying to operate in the new environment of a free market economy, the assize laws weren't balancing the scales anymore, they were putting the heavy hand of government on them. In the Petition for the Repeal of the Act to Regulate the price and assize of bread, a coalition of Massachusetts bakers tell us in their own words why Old World assize laws don't work in the New World economy:

The bakers in this text complain that not only is the law un-American -- "unjust and oppressive on a part of the community, and inconsistent with the principles of our free Constitution" -- but also other factors in the colonies, in addition to the assize laws, work against the bakers. At the time when the law was first instituted, they complain, grain had been imported unmanufactured, so bakers could keep and profit from the sale of the separated bran product. Now, though, processed flour is imported by itself, and the bakers are taking the loss. Even the weather in America conspires against them, the bakers say! Doughy loaves in summer months are guilty of a multitude of sins: they often spread out and obscure the required ID markings, or stick together so that the precise measurements of each loaf are altered.

The importation of communal ovens to colonial villages from Europe, such as those from Devon in the 17^th century, and the sale by street-hawker of "bread-water," probably yeast water or a sourdough starter of some kind in medieval cities, suggests that perhaps lower urban classes and colonial families still baked some bread products for themselves.[6] But the Massachusetts baker John White probably frames the situation best when he says that "every family however large or small, or wherever living, may bake their own bread -- and certainly will, unless they can purchase for less money, than they can buy the Grain and bake it in their own families." [italics mine]. The transition from home baking to commercial baking was doubtless one of convenience and economy. In medieval Europe, where bakers' guilds formed powerful professional monopolies, the assize laws were the customers' guarantee of a low price and a consistent product. In the new world colonies, although the laws were brought over like a piece of heirloom furniture, both producers and consumers quickly discovered that it just didn't fit right in the new environment -- the free market in a new society did the job of the old assizes.

Appendices

The Bread Assizes mentioned in this text are available as full text handouts to students.

Notes