Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Cash for Clunkers

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Cash for Clunkers
  • Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 20:07:44 EDT



>
> >

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




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page