Bread throughout history

Bread is one of man’s most significant inventions throughout history, regardless of what anyone else may claim. Fifteen-thousand years ago people gathered and cultivated grasses, which evolved into today’s barley, wheat, oats and rye. Millet is considered to be the oldest such grass known.

Stone Age man ate unprocessed grains, until such time as he learned to pulverise them and mix them with water. Thus the first grindstones were developed, as well as the first flour, and bread in the form of a liquid porridge.

The next era – leavened dough
When man learned to access water, crunched grains were baked before being mixed with water. Such porridge was already much tastier. A rather long time elapsed until a new discovery was made – scones made from thick grain porridge. These roasted chunks of grain only distantly resembled bread and were not very tasty, though the era of bread baking on Earth had begun. More thousands of year had to elapse until it occurred to anyone to bake bread from leavened dough. Albeit slowly, everything happened in time!

The democracy of Pompeii
(Initially it was women who ground grain and baked bread in the home, not even realising that they were performing the tasks of miller and baker. Later, bakeries and the profession of baker were created, usually performed by men.) In ancient Rome a good baker was highly respected, and bakers of bread often attained the highest standing in society. We know that, for example, the head of the city of Pompeii was a baker. Perhaps for this reason archaeologists find not only bakeries with loaves of bread bearing the baker’s stamp, but also communal ovens, where inhabitants were able to bake their own bread.

Ancient, yet still current
The art of baking soft bread was adopted from the ancient Egyptians by the Greeks and Romans. In ancient Greece bread from leavened dough is mentioned as far back as 500 B.C. It was considered a delicacy and was a lot more expensive than unleavened bread. At around the same time, ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks particularly enjoyed hardened bread, because the people believed that it helped with chewing problems. In the Middle Ages only in Central Asia was hardened bread considered better than fresh bread.

Bread for kings too
In many countries in Europe there was a direct link between the freshness of bread and the bread eater’s social status. The king’s family ate only freshly baked bread. Bread baked on the previous day was eaten by members of high society, bread baked two days ago was delivered to small noblemen, and three-day-old bread was eaten by monks and schoolchildren. Bread baked four days ago went to farmers and small craftsmen. (Henry IV granted himself the title of “bread king”, adding that he who rules over the nation’s bread is a greater ruler than he who only rules over the souls of his citizens. Perhaps the king failed to understand how relative everything is!)

In order to bake rye bread, guilds are needed                                         

During approximately the 12th Century, scones evolved into leavened rye bread and baking technologies started to diverge. In the country bread was baked at home, whereas in the cities, where trade developed and populations increased, the demand for bread rose. In Riga and other large cities at the time, primitive bread bakeries started to form, where bread was baked 16-24 hours a day. A new craft was created – that of the baker. As their number increased, 14th Century bakers united into baking associations or guilds. Historians note that the first official guilds in Riga appeared in the second half of the 14th Century.

The most popular professions
In cities in the Middle Ages, craftsmanship played less of a role than trade. Riga’s craftsmen primarily worked for the local market – for the needs of the city’s inhabitants, and thus in Riga the crafts that developed most quickly were those related to delivery of foodstuffs. Popular from the 13th – 15th Century were bakers, millers, and butchers, and around this time confectioners and bakers of pastries appeared. In cities millers enjoyed a special place in the hierarchy of trades. In the 14th and 15th Century, outside of Riga six windmills were in operation to meet the city’s needs.

The assistance of future bakers
The chief role of the guilds was to organise the production of crafts and protect the interests of craftsmen. Most significant in the production process was the artisan, because every Middle Age guild artisan was also the person performing the work, with the assistance of journeymen and apprentices. A journeyman was a qualified craftsman, but one who did not have the right to work independently. For the work he performed the journeyman received from the artisan a set salary – cash, shelter and sustenance in the artisan’s home. In the 14th and 15th Century, apprentices usually studied for one year, working in exchange for shelter and sustenance.

Obedience without objection, or, a journeyman remains a journeyman
If an artisan had more than one journeyman in his employ, then responsibilities were usually divided, and the division of tasks resembled manufacturing. The charter of the baker journeymen in 1767 stated that a journeyman was not permitted to refuse any work related to the baking of bread. A journeyman also was not allowed to raise objections to having to split the wood necessary for baking bread. Before the dough was made, journeymen were responsible for carefully sifting the flour, and if the bread was nevertheless unclean, the journeymen had to pay a fine. Also, the guild charter emphasised that journeymen were not permitted to criticise the bread provided by the artisan.

Masterstroke for confederates and competitors
The 14th Century Riga bakers’ charter also included a requirement that a journeyman, upon becoming an artisan, was required to create a final work – a masterstroke. Beginning in the 16th Century this requirement was extended to other crafts. In 1685 the bakers’ charter required the simultaneous baking in one oven of a loaf of rye bread for six farthings, barley bread for six farthings, white bread sprinkled with clean water, and six “kliņģeri”, or bread pretzels. This masterstroke was not a test of the skills required on the job, but was intended as an intentionally difficult challenge. The requirement of this final work indicated an increase in competition and a resulting attempt to find new means to repel competitors.

Lifelong limitations
Riga’s bakers and butchers in the Middle Ages sold their respective goods in special bread and meat shops in the city, for which twice a year they paid the city a special duty or market money. The finished product was usually delivered to the market or to customers by the artisan’s journeyman, who also sold the bread. The baker’s guilds’ 1392 charter even forbade artisans from conducting the selling themselves and entering the bread shop, except during the time when the journeyman was en route to the customer. Further, the Riga City Council on numerous occasions warned the artisan bakers, threatening to bar them from the guild if the bread was not baked on time. The Council feared a bread shortage in the city, because this could evoke unrest.

The dear cost of youth
Occasionally the artisans sought to limit the power of the journeymen, because the journeymen were dictating their own regulations. For this reason in June 1775, the journeymen bakers began to strike. The artisans had criticised the journeymen that they were frequently spending nights outside the house of the artisan, and cited the charter regulation that stated that for every night that the journeyman failed to arrive home, he would be fined one week’s wages. After having mixed the dough, the journeymen would leave the bakeries and carouse through the night, ignoring pleas to return to work. The journeymen were apprehended, but then the artisans were unable to supply the city with bread, so they asked that the journeymen be released. By this time the journeymen were ready to return to work, though they did end up having to pay the fine.

The mean brother’s bed
If the journeymen had lodgings of their own, they would take in wandering journeymen, because in the Middle Ages journeymen tended to, well, journey. Each journeymen’s lodging or tavern had a “brother’s bed”, the use of which was strictly regulated. At 8:00 pm the baker journeyman had to ask the tavern manager permission to sleep in the bed. Before going to sleep the guest was required to bathe thoroughly and sleep completely naked. Also, clothing were not to be placed on the bed or hung above it. By threatening the imposition of a significant punishment – procurement of a barrel of beer – the journeymen bakers’ guild stated that the guest was forbidden to lie on the bed in his boots. The bed also had to be vacated by 6:00 am. Limitations were also imposed on the guest regarding being inside the building.

Prominent marketing
In the Middle Ages journeymen in their struggles did not forget the main goal – to obtain a shorter workweek. The term “free Monday” or “blue Monday” arose from the times when churches were decorated in blue. In subsequent centuries Monday prayers were replaced by revelry and drinking, but the name remained. This term also has a second explanation: since the journeymen would drink on Sunday, then on Monday they were “blue”. Monday’s hangover made working so difficult that the journeymen sought to make Monday blue – by getting drunk anew. Thus in the 16th Century the charter declared Monday an official post-celebration or “hangover” day.

A time for work, a time for play
The baker’s craft belonged to those crafts serving the city’s inhabitants. And, although everyone in the city had the right to bake bread for his own purposes, of course it was more convenient to buy it in the nearby shop.

In the Middle Ages craftsmen usually did not work at night, but bakers were an exception, because in the morning in cities people needed fresh bread. Nevertheless even artisan bakers had to finish their work before midnight. Once midnight arrived all work ceased!