FW: [Sca-cooks] Paper twists of spice (Was spice storage)

[Linda Peterson]

Does this paragraph bother anyone else? There were no towns before the
16th century? Poor folk saved up all year in order to purchase in bulk?
That first sentence especially just seems odd to me.

Mirhaxa
  mirhaxa at morktorn.com

>   "Until the sixteenth century, buying and trading were done mainly in
>   bulk.  There was little need for wrapping or packaging.  Customers
>   provided their own containers, such as baskets, jugs, or bowls.  But as
>   towns and cities grew, goods could be purchased in smaller quantities
>   as they were needed, and it was convenient to do shopping more
>   frequently.  Therefore, items such as grain, beans, buttons, and
>   needles required some kind of wrapping or packaging to contain these
>   smaller quantities.