Volume 1

The modern baker, confectioner and caterer : a practical and scientific work for the baking and allied trades / edited by John Kirkland ; with contributions from leading specialists and trade experts.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The modern baker, confectioner and caterer : a practical and scientific work for the baking and allied trades / edited by John Kirkland ; with contributions from leading specialists and trade experts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    all the Companies to provide corn, which was stored in great granaries, Stores of the principal of which were at Bridgehouse and Leadenhall. Grain. “The wardens of the Bakers were admonished to make diligent labour and means for some competent provision of wheate, and subse- quently delivered in an account of all the meal in store or bargaine provided by them and the Stratforde bakers.” Stow tells of a time when there was a scarcity of wheat so great that, “ when the carts of Stratford came laden with bread to the City, as they had been accus- tomed, there was such press about them, that one man was ready to Great Scarcity destroy another in striving to be served for their money”, in 1512. q’i1is Was in 1512, but the mayor of that day, one Roger Achley, was a man of energy and resource, for he “made such provision of wheat, that the bakers, both of London and Stratford, were weary of taking it up, and were forced to take up much more than they would, and for the rest the Mayor laid out the money and stored the wheat in Leadenhall, and other garners of the City”. From this it is evident that the Bakers’ Company was not allowed privileges without responsi- bilities. It has probably never been a part of the rights of the Company to set the price of bread, although, as already noticed, it was entrusted Powers of with powers of search and supervision over the trade Bakers’ Company. with regard to price and weight after the assize was duly set by the mayor and aldermen, or by the magistrates in counties. The Bakers do not seem to have exercised this supervision with the strictness which those in higher authority thought necessary, or else the latter were jealous of fines going into the funds of the Bakers’ Company rather than into the coders of the City courts, for the Company gradually lost its powers, and about the year 1730 we find the Bakers appealing to be heard before the Bar of the House of Commons Bakers Appeal. agajns^. scant consideration they received from the magistrates, and against those magistrates setting the assize without consulting the Bakers’ Company. Their right to be so heard was un- doubted, and is distinctly stated in the Bread Act, 3 Geo. I: “Before any Right to reduction is made in the Assize of Bread by the Court of Lord be Heard. Mayor and Aldermen, &c., a copy of the prices delivered in by the head weigher for the City for the time being, shall be left at the Common Hall of the Bakers’ Company, for the space of 12 hours before any such reduction, to the intent that the said Company shall have opportunity to be heard thereupon before the Court”. The abolition of the assize of bread in the Act of 1822 took away the occupation of the Bakers’ Company, and until quite recently it Present Condition drifted further and further away from the trade to of Company. which it belongs, neglecting all its functions, but re- taining the funds for the comfort and benefit of those who happened to be on its livery. Although the majority of the livery and the wardens have now no connection with the trade, there has, within the hist dozen