ABSTRACT
The article offers some initial material on how the Irish state intervened in the bread and corn markets during the eighteenth century and what this can tell us about how article, was the Assize of Bread. This article is intended to provide an Irish legislative framework for that debate using the regulation of the bread market as a case study. The legislation addressed in this article primarily deals with the regulation of the bread market. The 35 can be divided into two groups: those bills regulating the corn and bread markets through the operation of the Assize of Bread; and those which sought to regulate the baking trade. Most sought to regulate the market in bread corn and to prevent forestalling, engrossing and regrating. The bakers were accused of collusion with corn traders or mealmen to buy corn or flour outside the public markets or by baking underweight bread and finding alternative ways to sell this outside their shops.
