OCR Text |
Show !278 OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. [ CH. IV. , 1 685,* con1:non labourers were ~llowed to take only 8d. a day for the su1nn1er half year. Sir Georo·e Shuckhurgh puts dovvn only 7td.' for the peri~d fron1 167 5 to 1720 ;'f and Arthur Young esti1nates the average price of labour during the whole of the 17th century at IOtd.t If on these <>'rounds we . b ~vere to est1111ate the \vages of labour from 1665 to the end of tl~e century at 10--}d. it \Vould appear that the earnings of the labourer, in the 17th century, after the depreciation of n1oney had ceased were only su_fficient . to purchase t "of a peck of \Vh~~t. Taking ho\vever the tnore favourable suppositi~ n of ls. a day as the earnings of the labourer, they \Vould purchase, as before stated about..;!_ of a pee1 c ' ' ' 4 During the first t\venty years of the 18th century, the price of corn fell, but not n1uch ; and it may be dou~ted \Vhether the price of labour rose. In 1725, a fe\v years later than the period alluded to, the vvages of labour \Vere settled by the justices at M~nchester. The best husbandry labourer, from th.e .D11ddle of March till the middle of Septetnber, vvas not to take n1ore than 1 s. a day without meat a~ld drink; b.ut cotnmon labourers, and hedgers, ditchers, palers, thrashers, or other. task-\vork, only 1 Od. Mr. l~owlett, as quoted by Sir F. Eden,'§ st~tes the pnce of day-labour, so late as 1737, at only I Od. a day; and Sir F. Eden, \Vriting in 1796, ~ Ed~n's State of the Poor, vol. iii. p. 104. t Phi]osoph. Trans. for 1798. Part i. p. 176. l Annals of Agriculture, No. 270. 88 § Vol. I. p. 385. p. · SEC. IV.] OF THE WAGES O.F' LABOUR. observes, that frorn various information he had collected in different parts of England, he had reason to think that the wages of labour had doubled* during the last sixty years, which could hardly be true, unless wages in the early part of the century had been ]o\ver than ls. rfhe average price of vvheat for the first twenty years of the century \Vas rather less than 21.; and if the \vages of labour were only 1 Od. or 1 Otd., the labourer vvould earn considerably less than ! of a peck. If the wages were Is. he \vould earn t ·of a peck. Fro1n 1720 to 17 55 corn fell and continued lo\v, \Vhile the \Vages of labour seen1 to have been about ls. During these thirty-five years the price of wheat \Vas about 33s. the quarter, or a little above 1s. the peck, and the labourer therefore, on an average of thirty-five years together, \voul(l be able to earn about a peck of \V heat. Frorn this tin1e corn beo·an Q"radual1y to rise b u ' '\vhile \·\rages do not appear to have risen in the same proportion. 1,he first authentic accounts that we have of the price of labour, after corn had begun to r1se, is in the extensive. Agricultural Tours of Arthur Young, \vhich took place in 1767, 1768 and 1770. rfhe general result of the price of la ·bour from these tours, on the n1ean rate of the whole year, \Vas 7 s. 4-td. a vveek. + Takjno· an a vera o·e I b b of the five years, fron1 1 766 to 1770 inclusive, the * V 0l. I. P• 3'85. t Annals of Agriculture, No. 271. p. 215. 'f4 |