The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700-1775

Steven Laurence Kaplan

Published by Duke University Press 1996

The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700-1775

Steven Laurence Kaplan

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822381983

Overview
Contents

About this book

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 Kaplan’s The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700–1775 focuses on the production and distribution of France’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, Kaplan’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 bread’s materiality and cultural meaning, Kaplan looks at bread’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, Kaplan’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, 1700–1775 is 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 / Editor information

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

Reviews

“A landmark in eighteenth-century historiography. The verve and clarity of Kaplan’s writing are marvelous. The completeness of the project is admirable; every kind of archival material that might have shed light on the subject has been systematically scoured.”—William M. Reddy, Duke University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List ofIllustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List ofTables Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. Bread: Demand and Supply
I. Breadways Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
2. Bread Making Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
3. Baker Shops and Bread Markets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
4. The Forain World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
5. Bread on Credit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
II. Bakers: Social Structure and Life Cycle
6. The Guild Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
7. From Apprentice to Journeyman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
8. At Work Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
9. The Journeyman's World outside the Shop Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
10. Establishment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
11. Marriage Strategies and Family Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	302
12. Fortune Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
13. Bakers as Debtors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	377
14. Failure Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	400
15. Reputation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
III. Police ofBread and Bakers
16. Primer to Policing: Figuring Supply and Consumption Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	439
17. The Police ofBakers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	458
18. Setting the Price ofBread Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	493
19. Policing the Price ofBread, 1725-1780 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	521
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	567
Appendixes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	581
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	591
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	717
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	745

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 782
Illustrations
- Other: 21 illustrations

eBook

Published: June 19, 1996
ISBN: 9780822381983