Bread and the British Economy, C1770-1870In this ambitious book Christian Petersen has taken a central topic in economic and social history and given it a new sweep and coherence. As the Lord's Prayer suggests, securing an adequate supply of bread was a matter of over-riding concern to everyone until very recently. Bread was always by far the largest single item in the budgets of the poor, but bread could be made from many grains - wheat, rye, barley etc. Christian Petersen describes how in the later eighteenth century the process of replacing other cereals by wheat in bread making was completed throughout Britain. He provides a continuous series of estimates of bread consumption per caput, of bread prices (and, consequently, used in conjunction with population data, of total national expenditure on bread), and of wheat output and net imports. The implications of the changes in techniques of milling and baking that occurred are analysed, and the organisation of the baking and retailing of bread is described. Bread was so central to the economy of individual households and to the national economy as a whole that this book represents a major contribution to the history of the British economy and of British society in the period 1770-1870. |
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Bread and the British Economy, 1770-1870 Christian Petersen,Andrew Jenkins No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
18th century Adam Smith agricultural allowance amount annual average Appendix Assize of Bread baking barley bread acts bread consumption bread prices bread value breadstuffs Britain British bushel calculated capita consumption cent century in review Chapter Charles Smith commercial millers consumed Corn Laws cost Data on bread dearth demand diet eaters economy Edward Smith Eliza Acton England and Wales EP Thompson especially flour given Glasgow gluten grain High Price HMSO HoC Sessional Papers Household bread imports increased labourers lbs of bread loaf loaves London Company magistrates metropolitan milling oats official Orbell other-grain Papers vol 131 potatoes price of bread price of wheat production profit proportion quarter of wheat represented roughly Sack Scotland Sessional Papers vol Standard Wheaten bread supply Table thesis Thwaites trade undersellers volume water zone weekly wheat bread wheat prices wheat-eating equivalent population white bread workers