| OCR Text |
Show 280 OF THE ¥\.,.AGES OF LABOUR. ( CH. I V. price of the quarter of wheat was 2l. 7s. Sd. or nearly 48s.* which \Vould be 6s. the bushel, and Is. 6d. the peck. At these prices of labour and \vheat, the labourer would earn very nearly t of a peck. In 1810 and 181 I, accounts fro1n thirty-seven counties, 'vhich, according to Arthur Young, were quite satisfactory, n1ake the wages of day-labour for the n1ean rate of the year 14s. 6d. t a vveek, or nearly 2s. 6d. a day. The price of wheat for five years ending with 1810 was 92s.-ending with 1 811, 96s .t The prices both of labour and 'vbeat appear to have doubled; and the labourer, in 1810 and 18 I 1, con ld earn just about the san1e quantity of 'vheat as he could about forty years before, that js i- of a peck. The intern1ediate 'periods n1ust.necessarily have been subject to slight variations, O\ving to the uncertainty of the seasons, and an occasional ad vance in the price of corn, not iinmediately follo\ved by an increased price of labour; but, in general, the average must have been nearly the same, and seldom probably for many years together differecltnuch from t of a peck . . * Deducting ~ from the prices in the 'Vindsor Table. Arthur ' Young deducts another~9th for the quality; but this is certain I y too much, in reference to the generai averaoe of the kinadom to which ...... 0 0 the latest tables apply. , I have therefore preferred adhering all along to the Windsor prices; and the reader will make what allowances he thinks fit for the quality, which, according to Mr. Rose, is not much above the average. t Annals of Agriculture, No. 271. p. 215 and 216. t 'Vi~dsorTable, Suppr to Encyclopredia Brit. Art. Corn Law s. SEC. V.] OF THE \V AGES OF LABOUR .. 281 SECTION V. On · the Conclusions to he drare;n from the preceding lle1)iero. -Of the Prices oj~ Corn and Labour during tlte five last Centuries. Fron1 this review of the prices of corn and labour, during nearly the five last centuries, we may d1~aw son1e important inferences. In the first place, I think it appears that the oTeat fall in the real \IVaO'es of labour which took b b place in the 16th century, n1ust have been occa-sioned 1nainly by the great and unusual elevation \vhich they had previously attained, and not by the discovery of the An1erican Inines ~nd the consequent fall in the value of n1oney. When we compare the \vages of labour during the last half of the 15th century, with 'vhat they were both before and subsequently, it appears that 'vhatever n1ay have been the cause of these high 'vages, they \Vere evidently peculiar,. and could not therefore be permanent. 'fhis indeed is evident, not only by comparing then1 'vith previous and subsequent periods, but by considering their positive an1oun t. Earnings of the value of nearly two pecks or half a bushel of \V heat a day \Vould allo,v of the earliest marriages, and the n1aintenance of the largest families. They are near I y the sa !De as the earnings of the American labourer. In such . a country as Engla11cl was, even at that tin1e, such wages could only be occasioned by ten1porary causes. .t\n1ong these 've 1nust reckon, a general in1provement i1i |
