of pork, and also of the produce manufactured therefrom. The average weight of one pig is 201 pounds, divided as follows:- The average weight of 29 pounds for the entrals will seem perhaps small, but there is a deduction of one-half to be made to obtain the net weight of the head, and the blood is omitted, as it is only used for the preparation of black puddings during six months of the year. We may, therefore, adopt as true the weight of 29 pounds, which serves as a basis for the octroi duty. The trade of the pork dealer has two objects-the sale of the several parts of the pig in a raw state, and the preparation of other parts, cooked and seasoned, known by the name of "charcuterie," comprising sausages, black puddings, saucissons, (thick and short sausages,) cervelas, (sausages made of the brains,) and stews of the liver and jowl; these consume nearly the sixth part of the net weight of the animal. Independent of these, and the hams, which the pork dealers smoke and prepare, they sell the produce of the departments, and of foreign countries, which, of more or less renown, are esteemed by consumers. Such are the hams of Bayonne, of Mayence, and of York; small sausages of Frankfort, large sausages of Lyons, and of Arles; the stews and other preparations from Troyes. The sale of these choice articles is divided between the pork dealers and the eating-house keepers, as well as an inferior order of grocers and merchants, who deal in the inferior pork prepared in Lorraine, Normandie, and Brittany. The market of hams, which comes in Holy week, is the great market of this produce. They sell there Bayonne hams, and small sausages of Arles and Lyons. From 1845 to 1852, during the three market days, the sales reached 411,853 pounds of pork. In 1851 it amounted to 633,450 pounds. Among the twenty or thirty departments which sent meat to the market of hams, the most esteemed are la Seine, la Muse, and la Moselle. The most part of the imports of 1851 proceeded from fifteen departments, of which the dealers have sold the quantities as under:— The surplus supply (28,111 pounds) came from fifteen other departments, which need not be specified. CONSUMPTION OF PORK IN PARIS AT VARIOUS TIMES. Savary, according to Saval, estimated the number of pigs killed in 1634 at 27,000. The records of the time of Richelieu, to 1637, mention 25,000. The consumption of 168, by the records of Châtalet, advanced to 58,000. We regret not being able to verify these figures, which seem so much exaggerated, for we are inclined to think the pigs and the sheep have been reckoned together. It appears that in the time of Delamare, the number of pigs raised for food was considerably lessened. This author maintains that there were only 12,752 for 1707, and that at this time they did not get beyond 15,000 in the best years. Savary quotes a record which estimates the consumption at 28,000 pigs for 1722; for the subsequent time we possess the reckonings of Lavoisier, and of M. Tessier, operating on the years immediately preceding 1789; the number of pigs consumed is 35,000, according to the first, and 41,000 according to the second. We are able to furnish with more certainty estimates of the supply of Paris with pork. They comprise a period of twenty-one years, if we put in the six years comprised in the reckoning by M. Goussard for the years 1781 to 1786. This is a total of twenty-seven years, which enables us to calculate with some certainty the true consumption in the capital previous to 1789. Paris has received at various times the quantities specified below, the average result procured during 4, 6, 8, and 9 years: From 1757 to 1764.. .pigs. 1766 to 1774.. 66 33,576 | From 1777 to 1780....... pigs. For the period after the Revolution, the numbers are: From 1799 to 1800...... .pigs. 1809 to 1818. "1819 to 1830. 38,833 40,441. We remark the fall in numbers during the latter years. It can be explained thus:—that before 1847, the time when the duty commenced to count by kilogrammes, the pigs brought in quarters to the Marché des Prouvaires were taxed, not like meat on hams, but in proportion of duty per head for each live pig. Since 1847, and especially since the opening of the municipal slaughter-houses dedicated to pork, it is possible to distinguish the live pigs imported, from the quantities brought from outside after slaughtering. Years. QUANTITIES OF PORK CONSUMED IN PARIS FROM 1757 TO 1854. Ibs. lbs. Paris. 671,520 5,841.900 lbs. 7.115.200 6,911,000 8,186,600 8,588,700 12,086.201 16.226,150 20.921.93 20,843.627 28.278.068 7,524,620 11,381,898 2,210,511 1,068,326 1,605,881 23,791,236 INDIVIDUAL CONSUMPTION OF PORK IN PARIS FROM 1757 TO 1854. This proves that the consumption of pork is now more extensive than under the ancient régime. This comes evidently from the modifications which the composition of the population of Paris has undergone, becoming a more active focus of industry and commerce; but if we compare pork with butcher's meat, we find that the first figures are only in the proportion of one-seventh. This proportion is still less when we make the comparison between pork only and the accumulated weights of various provisions which enter into the consumption of Paris, from which we conclude that the consumption of pork in Paris is confined to moderate limits, and that its use has never exercised any evil influence on the health of the inhabitants. PRICE OF PORK AT VARIOUS TIMES. The researches which we have made in the archieves of the police, have put us in possession of valuable facts, as to the quantities of pigs which entered formerly into the consumption of Paris, but we have not discovered any document giving a trace of the price of pork. It only appears that the authorities were in the habit of drawing up for the pig markets, bills similar to those which they furnished. for the market of cattle prepared for slaughter. We have no indication on this subject, except that which concerns hams and bacon, which were sold on certain days of the year in the Place of Parvis Notre Dame. This market was formerly that which in our days is the ham market, which is held every year in Paris during the last half of Holy week. PRICE PER POUND OF HAM AND BACON IN THE MARCHE DE LA PLACE DES PARVIS NOTRE DAME, FROM 1752 TO 1776. We perceive that the value is only increased by about one-third since the middle of last century. For the present time the market bills, which the administration publishes periodically by the overseers in the markets. of Saint Germain de la Chapelle and the Maison Blanche, give us the prices of pigs for each year, from 1845 to 1853. AVERAGE PRICE OF PORK PER KILOGRAMME, (2.2 POUNDS,) IN THE MARCHES DE SAINT GERMAIN DE LA CHAPELLE, ET DE LA MAISON BLANCHE, FROM 1845 to 1853. For the wholesale price we have still that of the auction hall. We give them, since the origin of that mode of sale, to the close of last year. AVERAGE PRICE PER KILOGRAMME, (2.2 pounds,) OF PORK SOLD IN THE AUCTION HALL, FROM 1849 TO 1854. Years. PRICE OF PORK PER KILOGRAMME, (2.2 POUNDS,) SOLD IN THE RETAIL MARKETS, FROM 1845 TO 1854. 1846..... .Fresh pork.. 1847.... .Fresh pork 1848. .Fresh pork.. 1849. .Fresh pork. 1850. Fresh pork. 1 0 0 104 0 1850.... Salt pork.. 1851. Fresh pork. 1851. .Salt pork. Fresh pork. 101 0 111 0 10 1852. .Salt pork.. 1853. Fresh pork. 1854. .Fresh pork.. 1854. .Salt pork..... PRICES CURRENT PER POUND OF PORK SOLD BY THE PROVISION DEALERS OF PARIS IN 1849 AND 1854: PRODUCE PREPARED AND SOLD BY THE PORK DEALERS OF PARIS. PRODUCE SOLD BY THE PORK DEALERS OF PARIS, BUT NOT PREPARED BY THEM. PRICES CURRENT PER POUND OF VARIOUS PRODUCE OF HOGS' FLESH, SOLD AT OLD CHEESE. The old cheese which are consumed in the capital are, as regards French-Gruyere, Roquefort, Auvergne, Septmoncel, (which also comes from Auvergne ;) and of foreign cheese-Holland, Parmesan, and Cheshire. But these are not of sufficient importance to call for special remark. It is sufficient to state, generally, that Roquefort, Cheshire, and another English cheese, the Stilton-sometimes, also, the Septmoncel and Sassonage-excel all others in quality. The consumption of old cheese is almost invariable. Since 1817 the increase in the quantities brought into Paris are in exact proportion to the increase of the population. |