At the close of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century there is a record of just one horse dealer in the Judengasse. However, the Jews played a much greater role in this trade than this would suggest. At this time they had already established a nearmonopoly of horse dealing in the area around Frankfurt. However, the Jewish horse dealers mostly lived and dealt in the surrounding towns and villages, like Bergen, Rödelheim or Offenbach. This enabled them to avoid the horse tax in Frankfurt, and also avoided problems with stabling the animals in the crowded Judengasse. By contrast the Jews were not involved in the trade in animals for slaughter. The meat supply to the Frankfurt population was largely handled by the wealthy Christian butchers. However, because of the special diet laws the Jews had the right to schlaughter animals for their own needs and to purchase animals for this purpose. The city council regularly issued exact regulations determining which animals and how many should be allocated to the Jews. The Jews were also allowed to buy a certain amount of meat from outside for their needs.