Meat matters: The butchers of Old Regime Paris

This dissertation addresses the central problem of meat's place in eighteenth-century Parisian society and politics. Meat consumption drew lines of distinction around consumers while meat provisioning generated a paternalistic attitude from the government. For most Parisians, the choice to eat meat rested on its quality, availability, and affordability in the marketplace, in addition to a myriad of cultural attitudes Parisians held toward meat as an item of luxury, a healthful restorative, a gluttonous vice, and a highly perishable and suspect foodstuff. The issues of the urban meat supply and its distribution that concerned municipal authorities, finance ministers, and kings followed the criteria of subsistence policy: to consistently provide a sufficient quantity of necessary staple foods for the greatest number of Parisians at a fair price.; Changes in consumer behavior influenced meat's social value especially during the late-eighteenth century. The demand for refinement in cuisine encouraged a great diversity in meat preparations and cuts of meat. The city's central market encouraged the growth of butcheries and the presence of itinerant meat-sellers to serve a wide population of meat-eaters. Police regulation ensured that the price of meat (especially the lesser cuts) remain within the limits of the populace. The changing position of meat in the social hierarchy evolved with the changing demand. Hence, its development as a food of necessity, I argue, rose out of meat's greater market accessibility, price controls, wider selection, and the growth of a consumer society.; Using a variety of archival and printed sources on butchers, their family histories, commercial dealings, police regulation, and guild records, I uncover the political and economic institutions that shaped the meat trade in Old Regime Paris. I examine the production, distribution, and consumption of butchers' meat through the social organization of their trade which, until now, has remained largely neglected by historians. Butchers allow us to view the production and consumption of the most popular meats from the site of exchange: the marketplace. The unfolding of butchers' world of work---their marriages, families, and fortunes---also demonstrates how butchers supplied such an exceptional amount of meat to a large and varied clientele.