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Show ~84 OF THE \VAGES OF LABOUR. · [cH. IV. Another inference which 've tn~y draw fron1 the review is, that during the course of nearly 500 years, the earnings of a day's labour in this country have probably been more fi·equently below than above a peck of \vheat; that a peck of wheat 1nay be considered as son1ething like a tniddle point, or rat.her above the n1iddle point, about 'vhich the market wages of labour, varyino- accord- . 0 ing to the demand and su'pply, have oscillated; and that the population of a country n1ay increase with son1e rapidity, \vhile the "vages of labour are even under this point. The \vages of day labour in France during the two last centuries, are said to have oeen pretty uniformly about the 20th part of a septier of 'vheat,* which 'vould be a little above f of a peck; but just before the revolution, at the time of Arthur Young's tour in France, they were only about t of a peck. Since the revolution, they appear to have. ris~n so as to co~nmand 1nore than a peck. A third Inference wh1ch \Ve n1ay draw frotn this revie~ is, that the seasons have a very considerable Influence on the price of corn, not only for two or three years occasionally, but for fifteen or . twenty years together. rfhese periods of unfavourable seasons seen1 to supersede all the other causes vvhich may be supposed to have the oTeatest influence upon prices. .i\n instance of thi~ occurs after the great pestilence in the time of Ed\vard ~II. One should naturally have thought that the i \Ve.alth of Nations, b. i. c . .xi. p. 313. SEC. v.] quantity of good land b in · abundant mpar d with the population, corn "? uld h ,. b n Y r T cheap. . It "as ho\ve,·er, on tb con trar.v dear during the t' ent -fi·re ub quent y ar -a fact \vhich cannot be accounted or but fron1 un avourable seasons. Another instance of the arne kind had occurred in the reign of Ed \\Tard II., during the \\hole of \vhich, the a\ erage price of \\'"heat ''Ta more than double ''hat it had been durin~ the Teate~t part of the reign of Ed \,·ard I. and the fir t half of the reign of Ed\\'"ard III.-eYidently o,,·ing to unfavourable seasons. .A. third in tance occur durino· the civil ar" of the 17th centur .. . So far fron1 think in o- that civil \Vars haYe a necessary tendenc ... to n:ake corn dear, I am disposed to agree ' ith ir . Eden. in attributing a part of the high price of labour ~nd the cheapness of corn in the 15th century, to the circumstance of a greater de truction of n1en than of cultivation having been occa ioned in th \Vars of the Hou e of York and Lanca ter. tin the civil 'vars of the 17tl entury no s h cbeapness of com took place. the co trar in tb . p~riod from I 646 to 1665 the price of · 'rn vas lugher both in France and · la d 1 , it 1HH1 ever been kno\\'n fort\ nty Year · JU' • 11 ·r ·ith ·r before or since, excl i ve of tl e ..~r· cc 1f 'b h tw~nty-five year in thi co 1y. 1· ()J' s}H11 t. 'l' ~enods, these ur favoura) c S( a">oj 1 aH;rJf fn·q•1 ~ 1t 1 ecurrenc.e, and mu t cs e 4- ·a. ly , ff . ·t h . <·<JIId j t i<JJJ of the labourer during t(·n r1r f <: < r.·. 1 t J • |