Here is Charles Babbage's description of the establishments for slaughtering horses at Montfaucon, near Paris in the nineteenth century: It describes the ingenuity and the hard work involved in the informal sector. It is one of my favorites. 1. The hair is first cut off from the mane and tail. It amounts usually to about a quarter of a pound, which, at 5d/lb, is worth 1.25d. 2. The skin is then taken off, and sold fresh to the tanners. It usually weighs about 60 lb., and produces 9s to 12s. 3: The blood may be used as manure, or by sugar refiners or as food for animals... A horse produces about 20 lb. of dried blood, worth about 1s.9d. 4: The shoes are removed from the dead horses... The average produce of the shoes and shoe-nails of a horse is about 2 1/2d. 5: The hoofs are sold partly to turners and combmakers, partly to manufacturers of sal ammonia and Prussian blue, who pay for them about 1s 5d. 6: The fat is very carefully collected and melted down. In lamps it gives more heat than oil, and is therefore demanded for enamelers and glass toy makers. It is also used for greasing harness, shoe leather, &c; for soap and for making gas; it is worth about 6d per lb. A horse on an average yields 8 lb. of fat, worth about 4s, but well fed horses sometimes produce nearly 60 lb. 7. The best pieces of the flesh are eaten by the workmen; the rest is employed as food for cats, dogs, pigs, and poultry. It is likewise used as manure, and in the manufacture of Prussian blue. A horse has from 300 to 400 lb. of flesh, which sells for from 1l. 8s. to 1l. 17s. 8. The tendons are separated from the muscles: the smaller are sold fresh, to the glue makers in the neighbourhood; the larger are dried, and sent off in greater quantities for the same purpose. A horse yields about 1 lb. of dried tendons, worth about 3d. 9. The bones are sold to cutlers, fan makers, and manufacturers of sal ammoniac and ivory black. A horse yields about 90 lbs., which sell for 2s. 10. The smaller intestines are wrought into coarse strings for lathes; the larger are sold as manure. 11. Even the maggots, which are produced in great numbers in the refuse, are not lost. Small pieces of the horse flesh are piled up, about half a foot high; and being covered slightly with straw to protect them from the sun, soon allure the flies, which deposit their eggs in them. In a few days the putrid flesh is converted into a living mass of maggots. These are sold by measure; some are used for bait in fishing, but the greater part as food for fowls, and especially for pheasants. One horse yields maggots which sell for about 1s. 5d. 12. The rats which frequent these establishments are innumerable, and they have been turned to profit by the proprietors. The fresh carcass of a horse is placed at night in a room, which has a number of openings near the floor. The rats are attracted into it, and the openings near the floor are closed. 16,000 rats were killed in one room in four weeks, without any perceptible diminution of their number. The furriers purchase the rat skins at about 3s. the hundred. [Babbage, 1835, pp. 393-4] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
