242 



TJic Country Gentlemaiis Magar^ine 



there in the spring of 1682 to fix a rate of 

 wages, and resolved that, where the labourer 

 was not boarded, he should have 5s. a-week 

 in winter, and 6s. in summer. 



"In 1661 the justices at Chelmsford had 

 fixed the wages of the Essex labourer, who 

 was not boarded, at 6s. in winter, and 

 7 s. in summer. This seems to have 

 been the highest remuneration given in the 

 kingdom for agricultural labour between the 

 Restoration and the Revolution ; and it is 

 to be observed that the year in which this 

 order was made, the necessaries of life were 

 immoderately dear. Wheat was at 70s. 

 the quarter, which would even now be con- 

 sidered as almost a famine price. 



. . " On the whole, therefore, it seems 

 reasonable to conclude that, in the reign of 

 Charles 11., the ordinary wages of the peasant 

 did not exceed 4s. a-week ; but that, in 

 some parts of the kingdom, 5s., 6s., and 

 during the summer months, even 7s. were 

 paid. At present the district where a labour- 

 ing man earns only 7 s. a-week is thought 

 to be in a state shocking to humanity. The 

 average is very much higher; and in 

 prosperous counties, the weekly wages of 

 husbandmen amount to 12s., 14s., and even 

 i6s." 



Macaulay then goes on to speak about the 

 wages of mechanics and artisans, as com- 

 pared with those gained by farm labourers : — 

 " The remuneration of workmen employed 

 in manufactures," he remarks, "has always 

 been higher than that of the tillers of the 

 soil. In the year 1680 a member of the 

 House of Commons remarked that the higher 

 wages paid in this country made it impossible 

 for our textures to maintain a competition 

 with the produce of the Indian looms. Our 

 English mechanic, instead of slaving like a 

 native of Bengal for a piece of copper, 

 exacted is. a-day. Other evidence is extant 

 which proves that is. a-day was the pay 

 to which the English manufacturer then 

 thought himself entided, but that he was 

 often forced to work for less." Passing 

 from weavers of cloth to a . different class 

 of artizans, he says : " During several genera- 

 tions, the Commissioners of Greenwich 



Hospital have kept a register of the wages 

 paid to different classes of workmen who 

 have been employed in the repairs of the 

 building. From this valuable record it 

 appears that, in the course of a hundred and 

 twenty years, the daily earnings of the brick- 

 layers had risen from half-a-crown to 4s. 

 lod., those of the mason from 2s. 6d to 

 5s. 3d., those of the carpenter from 2s. 6d. 

 to 5s. 5d., and those of the plumber from 

 3s. to 5s. 6d." 



Some exceedingly interesting facts are then 

 recorded by the great historian relative to the 

 price of living and the social condition of the 

 agricultural labourer two centuries ago. " It 

 seems clear, therefore," he says, " that the 

 wages of labour, estimated in money, were, 

 in 1685, not more than half of what they are 

 now j and there were few articles imported 

 to the working man of which the price was 

 not, in 1685, more than half of what it is 

 now. Beer was undoubtedly much cheaper 

 in that age than at present. Meat was also 

 cheaper, but was still so dear that hundreds 

 of thousands of families scarcely knew the 

 taste of it. In the cost of wheat there has 

 been very little change. The average price 

 of the quarter, during the last twelve years of 

 Charles 11. , was 50s. Bread, therefore, such 

 as is now given to the inmates of a work- 

 house, was then seldom seen, even on the 

 trencher of a yeoman or of a shopkeeper. 

 The great majority of the nation lived almost 

 entirely on rye, barley, and oats. 



" The produce of tropical countries, the 

 produce of mines, the produce of machinery 

 was positively dearer than at present. Among 

 the commodities for which the labourers 

 would have to pay higher in 1685 than his 

 posterity now pay, were sugar, salt, coals, 

 candles, soap, shoes, stockings, and generally 

 all articles of clothing and all articles of 

 bedding. It may be added that the old coats 

 and blankets would have been, not only more 

 costly, but less serviceable than the modern 

 fabrics. 



" In one respect it must be admitted that 

 the progress of civilization has diminished 

 the physical comforts of a portion of the 



