The Assize of Bread and Ale (Latin: Assisa panis et cervisiae) was a 13th-century statute (assize) in late medieval English law, which regulated the price, weight and quality of the bread and beer manufactured and sold in towns, villages and hamlets. This statute^[1] is usually attributed to act 51 Hen. III, occurring about 1266–1267.^[2] It was the first law in British history to regulate the production and sale of food.^[3][4] At the local level, this resulted in regulatory licensing systems, with arbitrary recurring fees, and fines and punishments for lawbreakers (see amercement).^[5] In rural areas, the statute was enforced by manorial lords, who held tri-weekly court sessions.^[6]

The law was amended by the Bread Acts of 1822 and 1836, which stipulated that loaves should be sold by the pound, or multiple thereof, and finally repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c.125).

[edit] Origin

The expensive equipment associated with brewing and baking, particularly the oven, created a commercial market for the goods. This resulted in a perceived need for regulations controlling quality and pricing, and checking weights, to avoid fraudulent activity by food providers. The Assize of Bread and Ale set the price of ale and the weight for a farthing loaf of bread.^[7] The act reduced competition and was purportedly given at the request of the bakers of Coventry, embracing several ordinances of Henry III's progenitors.^[8]

[edit] Declarations

The statute defined the various units of measure, declaring that,

by the consent of the whole realm of England, the measure of the king was made; that is to say: that an English penny, called a sterling round, and without any clipping, shall weight thirty-two wheat corns in the midst of the ear, and twenty-pence do make an ounce, and twelve ounces one pound, and eight pounds do make a gallon of wine, and eight gallons of wine do make a London bushel, which is the eighth part of a quarter. ^[8]

[edit] Bread

The assize presented an established scale, then of ancient standing, between the prices of wheat and of bread, providing that when the quarter (~240 L / 6.9 US bushel if the gallon is taken to be the wine gallon) of wheat was sold at twelve pence, the farthing loaf of the best white bread should weigh six pounds sixteen shillings (~2.5 kg / 5.6 lb avdp if the pound is taken to be the troy pound). It then graduated the weight of bread according to the price of wheat, and for every six pence added to the quarter of wheat, the weight of the farthing loaf was reduced; until, when the wheat was at twenty shillings a quarter, it directed the weight of the loaf to be six shillings and three pence (~120 g / 4.1 oz avdp).^[8]

The assize of bread was in force until the beginning of the 19th century, and was only then abolished in London.^[3]

[edit] Ale

In a similar manner, the assize regulated the price of the gallon of ale, by the price of wheat, barley, and oats, stating that,

when a quarter of wheat was sold for three shillings, or three shillings and four-pence, and a quarter of barley for twenty pence or twenty-four pence, and a quarter of oats for fifteen pence, brewers in cities could afford to sell two gallons of ale for a penny, and out of cities three gallons for a penny; and when in a town (in burgo) three gallons are sold for a penny, out of a town they may and ought to sell four.^[9]

Over time, this uniform scale of price became extremely inconvenient and oppressive; and by the statute 23 Hen. VIII c. 4 in the 16th century, it was enacted that ale-brewers should charge for their ale such prices as might appear convenient and sufficient in the discretion of the justices of the peace within whose jurisdiction where the ale-brewers lived. The price of ale was regulated by provisions like those stated above, and the quality was ascertained by officers of great antiquity, called gustatores cervisiae, that is, "aletasters" or ale-conners, chosen annually in the court-leet of each manor, and were sworn "to examine and assay the beer and ale, and to take care that they were good and wholesome, and sold at proper prices according to the assize; and also to present all defaults of brewers to the next court-leet."^[9]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Bennett, Judith M, Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0195126505; ISBN 978-0195126501
• Ross, Alan S.C., The Assize of Bread, The Economic History Review, Vol. 9, Issue 2, Pages 332 - 342, 1956.
• Davis, James, Baking for the common good: a reassessment of the assize of bread in Medieval England, The Economic History Review, Vol. 57, Issue 3, Pages 465 - 502, 2004.

[edit] See also

• Baker's dozen - origin of term.
• Worshipful Company of Bakers