In the case of labour, when one citizen is employed by another, it is equally to the credit of the nation, and required by a sense of justice, that one portion of so ciety should not impose or extort upon another. In many cases, the circumstances of the case regulate and prevent the evil complained of; and hence when a me chanic charges extravagantly, or greatly slights his work, a ready relief is obtained by employing another ; but this resource can only be had when individuals of the calling complained of abound in society : but it is denied in the case of the baker, for he deals in an article of the first necessity, and it is easy for the trade to enter into a combination to force a compliance with their prices, which those of other callings cannot accomplish, at least to the same injurious extent.
In several, if not all, of the cities in the United States, the assize of bread is regularly established ; but the principles or data by which they are regulated. are un known to me, except in the instance of New-York, where it appears to be taken for granted, that a barrel of flour of 196 pounds will gain 56 pounds when made into bread: the barrel will therefore turn out 252 pounds of bread ; this number multiplied by 16, (the number of avoirdupois ounces in a pound), will produce 4032 ounces, and the corporation have agreed that 3 dollars 50 cents, or 28 shillings (New York currency) is a rca son.,ble profit for making up a barrel of flour.
In order to determine the weight of a shilling loaf of bread of various qualities, the chamberlain is required to divide the number of ounces as above, by a number equal to the number of shillings a barrel of flour may be worth at the time, and to add the legal profit thereto ; the quotient will be the number of ounces which a shil ling loaf must weigh. When the fractional parts are less than half an ounce, they are taken off the loaf; and when half an ounce or more, an ounce is added to it.
Thus when flour sells at seven dollars a barrel, the shilling loaf must weigh 48 ounces, or 3 pounds avoir dupois.
The chief principle upon which the foregoing rule for regulating the assize is grounded, is the supposition that a barrel of flour will invariably produce a certain number of pounds of bread ; but this, as has already been seen, is not the case : the variation however will not be so likely to operate as great a source of loss to the bakers, as the citizens at large would suffer if no such regulation existed. But a source of contention may
arise from the time at which the loaf is weighed after it conies from the oven, for a loaf loses every hour after it is baked, until it is 24 hours old: and hence it may be of the legal weight shortly after it is baked, and yet be below the standard the next day.
In England there are three sizes of loaves, viz. the peck loaf of 17 pounds 6 ounces, avoirdupois weight ; a half peck loaf of 8 pounds 11 ounces ; a guartern leaf of 4 pounds 51 ounces ; and it is enacted, that all these loaves shall be sold, as to price, in proportion to each other respectively. So far the regulation is good, but when they resolve to determine the price at which those loaves arc to be sold, and to fix the quantum of profit which the baker shall receive for his labour, it is a ques tion whether great injustice is not clone to a set of men who are essential to the comforts of the citizens. The price of wheat, and of course of flour, varies as much as that of beef, or pork, and in England much oftener ; why then should a corporation deem itself more authorised to regulate the profits of a baker than a butcher? As al ready observed, it is the duty of all governments, state, or municipal, to secure the citizens at large from impo sition, and it is conceived that this may be easily effect ed in the case of the state of bread, by combining part of the British regulation with that of Pennsylvania viz. by specifying the weights of various loaves, and selling the same by weight. The consequence will be, that the citizen will naturally deal with that baker who gives the greatest quantity of good bread for the least money, and the price will of course be always regulated by that of flour, which is a matter of public notoriety, and might be regularly published by authority once a week, for general information. MEASE.