Manières d’habite: les usages du feu dans le Paris du XVIIIe siècle

Fire was everywhere in the early modern city, providing heating and lighting, and indispensable for many industrial processes. But neither its benefits nor the risks it entailed were equally distributed among the population. Daniel Roche has reminded us that fire was both a material thing and an object of consumption. It was equally a social marker. The rich enjoyed good heating and relatively bright lighting, whereas the poor were forced to rely on lower quality sources of fuel and on smoky, sputtering candles. At night, whether at home or in the street, people’s social standing was marked by the source and the quality of the lighting they enjoyed. Similarly, ordinary people were more at risk because of their social and living conditions: the poor, artisans, and servants were far more likely to suffer from fires and burns. But rank was not the only determinant of risk, since the old and the very young were the most vulnerable, women more than men, and some occupations more than others. There were changes across the 18th century, with improving management of fire, but profound social inequalities remained.