The domestic laws of the Order of St John regulated quite stringently commerce in victuals and markets, mostly for reasons of consumer protection, health, fair trading, hygiene and price control. The basics had already been laid down when Britain formally took the island over in 1813.

But the new British administration was not averse to gilding the lily. A slew of new regulations was issued, by proclamation or government notice, to supplement, amend or reinforce the original structures. These new regulations, in force in the short span between 1819 and 1823, today still seem far-reaching and long-sighted. I believe it would be instructive, sometimes amusing, to go through some of them.

The first I have come across is a proclamation by Governor Maitland, dated 1819. On December 30, 1818, the government had appointed Luigi Briffa as special ‘Magistrate for the Markets’ and, with the present proclamation, it issued 29 regulations to guide the magistrate in the performance of his duties. Some of these regulations appear curious, to say the least. 

The word ‘magistrate’ has changed meaning since then. Today, it denotes a member of the judiciary who exercises exclusively judicial functions.  Back then, magistrates acted more like heads of departments, who mostly performed administrative duties, though they were also empowered to judge offences against their department and impose fines and other disciplinary penalties.

Our Luigi Briffa (Żebbuġ, 1758 – Valletta, 1828) was no Mr Nobody. A minor hero in the uprising against Napoleon’s French occupation, he distinguished himself on various occasions. The National Assembly of the rebels, meeting in Mdina, on September 5, 1798, selected Briffa as liaison between Malta and Ferdinand, King of the Two Sicilies. He carried to Naples the petition of the Maltese insurgents to request military assistance, victuals, arms and ammunition from their lawful sovereign to whom they reaffirmed their loyalty and allegiance. 

On his return from Naples, Briffa left a stirring and spirited report of his adventurous mission and of the various setbacks he encountered. He brought back with him eight flags of the King of Naples, to hoist in Malta in the encampments of the rebels.

After that, Briffa frequently features in various episodes during the insurrection, right up to the surrender of the French, like his policing of St Paul’s Bay, landing place for vessels laden with food for the starving insurgents which ended routinely looted by local robbers. His exploits, mostly honourable, maybe sometimes less so, deserve a far more in-depth study. He died in Valletta but was buried in Luqa.

[attach id=1183414 size="large" align="left" type="image"]Near the fish market, Marina, Valletta. Photo: Author's Collection[/attach]

The 1819 regulations start off prohibiting any vendor in a market to use weights, scales and measures that were not stamped with the seal or imprint of the magistrate. Each seller had to have his own weights, measures and scales and could not borrow same from others.

Each prohibition specified a penalty for its breach − fines which varied from 20 “pieces” to one “piece”. The penalty changed “according to the means of the offender” and the discretion of the magistrate. These fines were to be doubled for a second offence and tripled for a third one. 

In the event of aggravating circumstances, the law authorised the magistrate to withdraw the trading licence. A “piece”, a silver coin known in Maltese as uqija, nominally stood for one ounce of silver. Quite often, the confiscation of the contravening victuals also formed part of the penalty.

Any vendor who counterfeited the official seal or defrauded buyers by the use of defective weights and measures committed a criminal offence.  In every market, a list of the products subject to price control (meta) had to be displayed in a prominent place and any vendor who put up for sale objects on that list without having first obtained the official price and placed that price visibly on display would be liable to penalties. The same applied if he charged more than the meta without the informed consent of the buyer.

Every middleman (sensal) had to inform the magistrate immediately of the sale of any victuals, to enable the magistrate to establish the meta. Fruit coming from a neighbouring island could not be put on sale before being reported to the magistrate who had to establish its selling price.

The proclamation prohibited vendors of wine by retail to put it on sale without having first shown it to a competent person authorised by the government to approve it or otherwise and obtained from him the right retail price. Each seller had to have two “spotlessly clean” dispensers for measuring wine. No barrels could be used which were not officially stamped.

Meats could not be offered for sale without their prior examination by the principal inspector (accatapane) − including meat butchered in the government abattoir − without an express licence from the magistrate. Law also barred butchers from selling meat directly to taverns or private houses; they had to put it on display in their stalls, not keeping any hidden anywhere. 

Curiously, the word ‘accatapane’, which in antique Malta meant market inspector, in today’s Italian has come to denote a beggar. 

Sellers of cheeses had to ensure that their product was perfectly clean and dry. Fruit and vegetable vendors were not to rest products on the ground or soak any produce sold by weight or sell unripe fruit.

Bread, being a staple, was highly regulated. The proclamation prohibited the sale of any type of bread not in conformity, by weight, condition or quality, with any current regulation and duly stamped. The contractors of the bread stamp would be held responsible for stamping in contravention of the regulations. 

Fish could be sold only in the following localities: Valletta – in the market expressly built in the marina, round the statue of the gigante (the Neptune now in the Palace courtyard); Floriana, in Piazza dei Cani (Square of the Dogs); Vittoriosa in Victory Square; Senglea on St Julian’s wharf; and in the Suq ta’ Bormla (Cospicua market). Piazza dei cani in Floriana abutted on the now demolished St Anne’s Gate, then universally known as Porta dei Cani. 

This rule suffered exceptions for social reasons. 

“In times of great abundance, certain types of cheaper fish could, with the permission of the magistrate, be put on sale for the advantage of the poorer classes” near the fountains of Old Wells Street, of the Manderaggio and near the Bishop’s Palace.

Masters of fishing vessels could only sell their entire catch in the places authorised above, either to fishmongers or directly to the public. The law prohibited the sale of fish in the streets, purchasing it off fishing boats before the boat had reached her landing place or hoarding it in the expectation of selling it later. 

Fish unsold by the Ave Maria (sunset) had to be auctioned, under the direction of the accatapane. In times of very abundant catches, the magistrate could alter the above conditions but always with previous authority from the government.

Carts could nor enter a market, whatever the animal drawing them. They had to load or unload goods in places designated for the purpose.

Sellers were not permitted to hide victuals, or to sell through windows, keeping the doors closed, or to refuse to sell goods displayed for sale. The adultera­tion of foodstuffs or wine attracted the highest penalties. The law prohibited associations bet­ween vendors to create monopolies (cartels) to alter the market forces. Victuals expressly imported to be sold wholesale or by retail could only be traded according to their destination, except by an official sensal (middleman).

The office of the Magistrate for the Markets had to display lists of weights and measures authorised in these islands, together with the fees payable to the government for stamping them (see illustration). Dr Bartolomeo Scifo signed the first list. Food inspectors of any rank could not request any payments from vendors, under penalty of being immediately dismissed from government service.

Some of the words used in the list of weights and measures still survive in the language while others have disappeared from the dictionary. Among the latter, was meta (mieta) a government-controlled price for consumables, very common in the 18th and 19th centuries. Others are measures for grain like tumolo and mondello. Tumolo – tomna – is still used as a measure of land, possibly a tumolo field yielded a tumolo of wheat. Salma, here used for wheat, still enjoys some currency as a measure for cereals and for land.

Cloth was measured by the canna – the length of a bamboo cane – and palmo – the width of an outstretched hand – il-palma t’id. The larger measure of wine was a barile – English barrel, and the smaller measure of wine and oil a quartuccio. Strange word. In my early days, qartoċċ still meant a measure but of dry pulse nibbles – qartoċċ ċiċri or karawett. Aquilina’s Dictionary does not record this use.

The cafiso, originally Arabic qafiz, the standard measure of oil or milk, still survives but rather wearily as kaffiż żejt. Other words for measures on life support would be gallon – gallun and rotolo – ratal. And for a steelyard scale, stadera or stasija.

The proclamation instructed deputy lieutenants of the villages and police officers to oversee the observance of these regulations by the sellers of victuals and to report any abuse to the magistrate. The inspector general of the police force was to confer with the magistrate as to the character of applicants before issuing any licence to act as seller of objects subject to the meta. When the magistrate and the inspector shared competences, they were to act in concert.

Only three years later, the government issued a new proclamation in view of the liberalisation of the commerce in grains, to prevent abuses in the price of bread (the government had previously enjoyed the monopoly on the importation of grains). 

Five new measures were put in place. In brief, a committee made up of a representative of the Commission for Provisions, the Magistrate for the Markets and a representative of the government was to meet at least every 10 days to examine the reports of the sales of grains made by the official licensed sensali and to establish the future meta for bread on the lines previously followed.

A similar Committee for Gozo included the principal officer of the island and was to meet in Gozo. For purposes of the meta, the price of bread had to be based on that fixed for Malta but augmented by the costs for transport of grains between the islands.

The magistrate had to see to the printing and publicity of the meta for bread and this could not be changed for the following 10 days, saving in exceptional circumstances.

In cases of sudden and unexpected rises in the price of grains, to prevent collusion by bakers and bread-makers, these were to report immediately to the magistrate the quantity of bread they could bake daily, which quantities they then had to sell at the price fixed by the meta.

Finally, the lieutenants of the villages had similarly to see to the enforcement of these rules and to report to the magistrate any contravention of the same. A government notice indicated that the deputy assistant commissioner,  General David had been nominated to form part of the committee for fixing the meta of bread.

Less than one year passed and the government, by proclamation, acknowledges publicly the failure of trying to impose the price of essential food items by the meta system. “Being anxious to experiment the results” of a free market, it ordered that, within a week, all types of fresh meats, vegetables and fruit could be sold at prices freely agreed on by the vendor and the consumer. The law, however, enjoined the magistrate to watch carefully to prevent cartel agreements between vendors to keep prices up.

Luqa has named a street after Luigi Briffa, the first Magistrate for the Markets.

Inscription on Luigi Briffa’s tombstone

To God the best and greatest.

In ashes and dust, the image of true excellence,

like a towering mound, displays these things to you,

the noble Aloysius,Briffa by surname,

has established through the conduct of his life,

he shines hence with splendid virtues and merit,

in particular the nation owes him much,

he assisted with great distinction the grateful people in many ways,

holding notable offices, he excelled in them.

Now shining in the high office of Magistrate,

he brought great honour upon his earthly home,

and then, wise man that he was, under an enduring stone,

he established this eternal and sorrowful home,

in the year of our Lord 1817.

(Translated from Latin by Joseph A. Debono)