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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> 
> >

A very apropos remark, but I wonder if you know just how apropos!

The common culture has this remark being said by Marie Antoinette when told 
that the common people had no bread and is kenning for being out of touch 
or uncaring.

The phrase was used in a book by <A 
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Confessions_of_Jean-Jacques_Rousseau";>Jean-Jacques
 Rousseau</A> written before 
Antoinette's lifetime but not published until after her time.  The phrase is 
attributed to a 'great princess' (grande princesse) and later readers assumed 
it 
referred to Marie Antoinette.

However there is still a lesson to be learned from this.  In the 1770's all 
business in France was tightly controlled by the government (and I'll be 
that hasn't changed much).  Anyone holding a liscense as a baker had to agree 
to bake a certain quantity of common brown bread and sell it to the poor at 
a fixed price.  Then having satisfied that social obligation, they were free 
to sell whatever else there was a market for.   The phrase attibuted to 
Antoinette is:

"qu'ils mangent de la <A 
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brioche";>brioche</A>."

Brioche wasn't 'cake' as we think of it, but rather it was bread made with 
eggs and butter and refined flour which was much more profitable for the 
bakers.  The bakers were obligated to bake bread for the poor at a fixed 
price 
before they could engage in the marketing of the more profitable brioche.  
When famine hit France, the bakers' profits were severely threatened if they 
had to use their limited ration of flour for the common bread first, so they 
would (illegally) turn away the common people and bake brioche for their 
more wealthy customers.

Antoinette, contrary to the proffered notion that she was naive and out of 
touch, knew this very well.  The regulation for bakers was that if they did 
not bake their quota of common bread for the masses, then anyone who 
requested bread was to be given brioche at the price of common bread.  The 
queen's 
comment was, "If these bakers cannot follow the law during these hard times, 
then they can just sell their expensive brioche to the poor at the price of 
common bread."

James