secured their own supplies. The church’s ban on meat during Lent, certain feast days, and
every Friday and Saturday, made fish an important element in the medieval diet. Because
of the risks of spoilage, fresh fish was generally retailed nearby its origins in the sea,
rivers, or fishponds. But salted and dried fish were often shipped over long distances and
represented a substantial proportion of the maritime trade of port cities and coastal
fishing villages.
Spices, oils, and salt were also shipped over long distances. Salt was a particularly
valuable and essential foodstuff, since it was used extensively as a seasoning and to
preserve meat and fish. Towns and even the national government took advantage of the
demand for salt by assessing a salt tax, or gabelle, on consumers, which was substantial
enough to constitute an important element of urban tax revenues. Indeed, towns benefited
from a wide variety of taxes on food and also realized revenues from the rents charged on
shops and stalls, the butchers’s shambles, and butter cross (where dairy products were
commonly sold). Port customs and tolls on exports and imports of wine also represented
a significant source of income for many towns and regional governments.
Maryanne Kowaleski
[See also: COOKING; DIET AND NUTRITION; FISHING]
Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques. Bulletin philologique et historique. Actes du 93e
Congrès. L’alimentation. Paris, 1968.
Duby, Georges. Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West, trans. Cynthia Postan.
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1968.
Renouard, Yves. “Le grand commerce des vins de Gascogne au moyen âge.” Revue Historique
211(1959):261–304.
Stouff, Louis. Ravitaillement et alimentation en Provence aux XIVe et XVe siècles. Paris: Mouton,
1970.
Wolff, Philippe. “L’approvisionnement des villes françaises au moyen âge.” In
L’approvisionnement des villes de l’Europe occidentale au moyen âge et aux temps modernes:
5eJournées internationales d’histoire, Flaran, 16–18 Sept. 1983. Auch: Centre Culturel de
l’Abbaye de Flaran, 1985, pp. 11–32.
FORMARIAGE
. The marriage or, more exactly, the prohibition of marriage of a rustic living in one
seigneurie to a rustic living in another is known as formariage, from Latin foris ‘outside’
and maritagium ‘marriage.’ By the 13th century, many jurists argued that, even in the
absence of other signs of servile status, liability to this prohibition was a strong
presumption of serfdom. Sometimes, the restriction on marriages between serfs and free
people is also called formariage, but “mixed marriage” is the preferred term for these
unions. At any rate, serfs who wanted to enter into marriages of either sort could do so by
paying fines, also known under the general rubric of formariage, to the appropriate lord
or lords.
Regional customs differed about who became the lord of children born from marriages
between serfs of different seigneuries and whether children of mixed marriages were
serfs at all. With regard to formariage narrowly defined, some customs favored the claim
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