A history of candy and of food culture in western children: sixteenth century to the present

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to present the first results of research in progress on the history of candy, which reveals the children's gourmand culture since the Renaissance. It is a matter of showing the links between children and sweetness and how sweetness is entered, under the name of “candy”, in children's culture.Design/methodology/approachThe study is conducted with historical methods. It is based on sources on the community of pharmacists, confectioners, grocers, confectioners' advertising, and an approach using historical lexicography, general literary sources, children's literature, and childhood memories in autobiographies.FindingsThe paper proves how the word “bonbon” was born in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century to signify the link between candies and childhood. The study shows how confectioners appeared and became organised and it is a surprise to discover that they did not use the word “bonbon” for their candies and pralines. One has to wait until the end of the eighteenth century before the confectionary market designates children as its main target. But the texts and the first moral tales of children's literature show that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries “bonbons” belong to the children's material world, such as toys, and that adults were glad to give them candies as a present.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to France and does not analyse the contemporary period.Originality/valueThe study is very new: any scientific enquiry has been conducted on the history of candy in children's culture and on the history of the confectioner trade.