Bakers Crafts

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Although everyone in the village would know how to make bread and flat breads, there were bakers in the larger towns and noble courts.
Initially the term ‘baker’ referred not so much to the person who baked, but the one who took the baked goods to market. Over time, they specialised in baking itself and acquired guild status, which, of course led to rights disputes, because the bakers resented baked goods being sold at markets by non-guild villagers. It was only later that regulations were laid down to make the sale of bread the exclusive domain of the guilds.
The quality of baked goods was supervised by Councillors, or the municipal measurer. If the flour was bad, they didn’t like its colour or the baker gave short weight, he was fined. If there were recurrences, he was expelled from the guild and subjected to harsh physical punishment. It is said that King Wenceslas himself used to visit the town market to inspect the quality of Prague baked goods, and punished dishonest bakers by publicly dunking them in the Vltava River.
The bakers often owned their own mills, which encroached on the millers’ craft.

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