Daily Life in the Nineteenth Century443times for every kilometer a ton was carted. In 1905,
when steamships had replaced sails, sea transportation
had fallen to 2.4 centimes (a decrease of 58 percent);
railroads had similarly replaced horse-drawn carts, and
land transportation had fallen to 5.4 centimes (a de-
crease of 84 percent). Thus, foreign food fell simply be-
cause bringing it to market cost less. This competition
drove down the price of locally produced food.
Data showing total consumption in a nation, or
data divided to state average consumption, can be
misleading. Individual consumption still varied greatly
by social class. A study of the English diet in 1900 has
suggested that a typical working-class family of four
had a weekly food budget of fifteen shillings (about
$3.75), while a middle-class family spent fifteen
shillings per person. Well-to-do families, who took
pride in lavish entertaining, spent thirty shillings per
person. Working-class meals still consisted chiefly of
starches, with few fruits or vegetables; meat chiefly
came at a special Sunday meal, with occasional
supplements such as bacon, sausage, or rabbit.
In contrast, food was a status symbol for the middle
classes, the material proof of their success in reaching a
standard of living previously limited to the wealthy.
Overeating became a conspicuous social process; obe-
sity, a mark of distinction. Standards of both manly and
womanly appearance favored robust figures showing
that a person did not live on a modest budget. One of
the best-selling books of the 1890s was an advice man-
ual for women entitled How to Become Pleasingly Plump.
Many public figures at the turn-of-the-century cast such
large shadows. The prime minister of Britain on the
eve of World War I, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman,
weighed nearly 280 pounds, and his wife was almost as
obese. They ate four meals every day, such as the prime
minister’s regular favorite: a bowl of mutton-broth soup,
a fish course of either herring or salmon, then a roast
lamb, followed by a grouse, and culminating in multiple
desserts, usually an apple tart with fresh strawberries,
then gingerbread and butter. His predecessor at the start
of the century, the marquess of Salisbury, was only
slightly smaller.
The health risks of a working-class diet were differ-
ent from those of middle class overeating. The fore-
most problem (beyond obtaining sufficient food) was
the adulteration of food. As Europe changed from an
agricultural society, in which people produced the food
that they ate, to an urban society, in which people pur-Consumption Number of Calories
Product (per capita, per day) calories (as a percentage of total)
Animal products
Butter 32 grams 240 10.6
Eggs 0.348 grams 26 1.1
Meat 104 grams 234 10.3
Salt fish 12 grams 32 1.4
Total 532 23.4
Beverages
Beer 0.367 liters 163 7.2
Coffee 12 grams 12 0.5
Gin 0.015 liters 40 1.8
Wine 0.015 liters 12 0.5
Total 227 10.0
Carbohydrates
Potatoes 700 grams 490 21.6
Rye flour 45 grams 140 6.2
Wheat flour 284 grams 880 38.8
Bread subtotal 1,020 45.0
Total 1,510 66.6
Source: Adapted from data in Catharina Lis, Social Change and the Labouring Poor: Antwerp, 1770–1860(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986),
p. 182.TABLE 23.4The Average Daily Diet at Antwerp in the 1850s