Regulation and modernisation of the urban economy: Selling meat in late- and post-corporative Brussels (1770-1860)

Between 1770 and 1860, the regulation of the Brussels meat market was utterly
transformed: the early modern organisation was almost entirely abolished and, in its place, a much more modern meat sector emerged. This PhD research explores how this spectacular and sudden change could take place. Focusing on the emergence of the new regulation, it explores which actors succeeded in shaping regulation, what their discursive strategies were and how they appealed to broader ideas of common and societal good to lend them credence. Subsequently, building on data on meat prices, meat retailer spatial settlement patterns and the distribution of the meat trade, it seeks out to which degree these pivotal regulatory changes succeeded in shaping the urban economy for meat.