Commerce, Food, and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England and France

Abstract

This thesis addresses the origin of the cultural myths that continue to be connected to popular notions of what were considered to be typically ‘English’ or ‘French’ ways of eating and drinking in the seventeenth century, in order to examine an alternative history that reveals a more complex story about food practices, and their relationship to cultural identification. In an era of empire-building, exploration and scientific discovery, early modern consumers were confronted with a dazzling array of new things to eat and drink, and new ways to eat and drink them. In this thesis, I focus on the role that commerce has played in the transmission of ideas, including the relationship between food and identity, using economic history to examine both commercial and cultural exchange in the trading networks of England and France. I explore how food choices that became part of the enduring cultural identity of Britain and France were influenced by global trade, and how the economic policies of these nation-states in the seventeenth century were influenced by what their citizens chose to eat and drink. How did the increase in global trade affect the definition of ‘French’ and ‘English’ cultures? In turn, how did the demands of cultures that could be defined as ‘French’ or ‘English’ affect trade? Finally, how did economic issues related to the production, consumption and distribution of food cultures establish the contours of early modern French and English cultural identity? To answer these questions, I focus on ingredients and comestibles specific to their respective food traditions: sparkling champagne, coffee, spices, and sugar. Each of these is now associated with myths of national identification that originated, before the advent of the nation as a political idea, during the seventeenth century.