Here continues a brief review of trade during the plague, this time with an emphasis on domestic trade. The author discusses the provision of coal and foodstuffs to the city and the general state of the trades, which naturally suffered tremendously during the visitation but which rebounded following the great fire in the summer of the next year, which consumed not only households but also the contents of the great warehouses along the river. In the aftermath of the fire, replacing those goods, including manufactures destined for the rest of England and for the Continent, fueled massive reemployment.
This episode also makes mention of the great coal-fueled bonfires that the authorities placed strategically around the city in an effort to ward off the disease. The author punctuates his account with a discussion of the difference between atmospheric and coal-fired heat, the former, he claims, sustaining vermin and venomous creatures that breed in food, plants, and even in our bodies, the latter assisting to clear and purge the air of noxious, disease-bearing particles. While he does not elaborate, apparently the public fires became such a menace in and of themselves that they were extinguished upon the vigorous protest of certain physicians.
[For notes on the main themes of the novel, visit https://londonplague.com/postscript/. To see some ways in which our reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic are anticipated in the Journal, see https://londonplague.com/concordance/.]
Credits:
Podcast produced by Sam Brelsfoard.
Music from Funeral Sentences of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), performed by the Choir of Clare College at the University of Cambridge, Timothy Brown conducting. Used by permission.
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