Waste Not, Want Not: Excrement and Economy in Nineteenth-Century France

Abstract

In mid-nineteenth-century France, the science of animal nutrition morphed into a Romantic political program. Scientists and socialists formulated a kind of industrial physiocracy that sought to replace wage work and finance capital with an unimpeded flow of excrement.

The farm as an accounting laboratory: an essay on the history of accounting and agriculture

“…Besides, in agriculture, where prices could be volatile and where much of the production inputs, like animal feed, were produced internally on the farms, the use of monetary value as a general equivalent in the calculation of yield is not necessarily the most obvious option. It was long resisted against, and many other equivalents were proposed by early agronomists, such for instance as the 'manure-equivalent' (see also Simmons 2006). The importance as well as difficulties of such non-financial performance metrics have not entirely receded since then, as is revealed for instance by the study of the different animal and plant 'selection regimes' that have coexisted in the twentieth century, in relation with specific intellectual property rights on animal and plant breeds (Bugos and Kevles 1992;Kevles 2007;Kevles 2013), up to the current focus on 'genetic indexes' (Labatut et al 2011).…”

Van meststof tot afval, van het platteland naar de rivier: een geschiedenis van Brussel en zijn excrementen

“…In het begin van de 19 e eeuw is het ophalen van de uitwerpselen van de stadsbewoners een activiteit die hoofdzakelijk dient om te voorzien in de behoeften van de landbouw rond de stad en deel uitmaakt van de recyclingeconomie [Barles, 2005]. Aangezien het aantal meststoffen beperkt is, worden organische afvalstoffen en in het bijzonder excrementen gebruikt om de akkers te bemesten [Brunt, 2007;Simmons, 2006;Tarr, 1975 Liger, F. 1875. Fosses d'aisances, latrines, urinoirs et vidanges.…”

Henry Carey’s Rural Roots, “Scientific Agriculture,” and Economic Development in the Antebellum North

“…In 1850, for instance, a French sanitary engineer arrived in Philadelphia with a plan to erect "an establishment for the transmutation of feculent matter into inoderous and chemical manure" (Pyesson 1851 , p. 4). Such ventures promised to solve two of the most vexing problems of nineteenth-century economic growth: the maintenance of rural soils and of urban health (Barles 2007 ;Dana 2006;Tarr 1975 ;Schultz and McShane 1977).…”