Assize of Bread and Ale

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The Assize of Bread and Ale (Latin: Assisa panis et cervisiæ) was a 13th-century statute in late medieval English law that set standards of quality, measurement, and pricing for bakers and brewers. This statute is usually attributed to act 51 Hen. III, occurring about 1266–1267.[1] It was the first law in British history to regulate the production and sale of food.[2][3] At the local level, this resulted in regulatory licensing systems, with arbitrary reoccurring fees, and fines and punishments for lawbreakers (see amercement).[4] In rural areas, the statute was enforced by manorial lords, who held tri-weekly court sessions.[5]

The law was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863.

Contents

[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.[6] The act reduced competition, and was purportedly given at the request of the bakers of Coventry, embracing several ordinances of Henry III's progenitors.[7]

[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. [7]”

[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 of wheat is sold at twelve pence, the farthing loaf of the best white bread shall weigh six pounds sixteen shillings. It then graduates 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 is reduced; until, when the wheat is at twenty shillings a quarter, it directs the weight of the loaf to be six shillings and three pence.[7]

The assize of bread was in force until the beginning of the 19th century, and was only then abolished in London.[2]

[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.[8]”

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 such ale-brewers should dwell. 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, 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."[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ross, Alan S.C. "The Assize of Bread". The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 9, No. 2. (1956), pp. 332-342.
  2. ^ a b Henry de Beltgens Gibbins. The Industrial History of England. Methuen. 1897. p 229.
  3. ^ Cartwright, Peter. Consumer Protection and the Criminal Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59080-9. 2001. p 152.
  4. ^ Bennett, Judith M. Women in the Medieval English Countryside. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) 233-236.
  5. ^ Hornsey, Ian. A History of Beer and Brewing. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 0-85404-630-5. 2004. pp. 292-296.
  6. ^ Wood, Diana. Medieval Economic Thought. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45893-5. 2002. p 97-98.
  7. ^ a b c Davies, Charles. The Metric System, Considered with Reference to Its Introduction Into the United States. A. S. Barnes and Company. 1871.
  8. ^ a b G. Long, ed. "Ale". The penny cyclopædia. Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. 1833. p 285.
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