ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. %6l 



long before such arrangements were dreamed of, at a time 

 when evidence of any combination to raise prices would have 

 been the occasion for severe penalties, the wages of labour, by 

 the ordinary operation of supply and demand, and by the fact 

 that labourers treated directly with those who actually needed 

 their services, were virtually higher than they have been from 

 1825 up to within the last few years, if indeed they were not 

 higher than they even are now. 



Of the farm servants some were engaged permanently, 

 others temporarily and for special purposes. Thus the farm 

 generally maintained certain ploughmen, drivers, carters, a 

 shepherd and, where the flock was large, two, one of whom, 

 the most highly paid, superintended the ewes a cowherd, a pig- 

 keeper, and a daye c , or dairy-woman, besides the bailiff, who 

 had charge of the whole estate and its management. I shall 

 take occasion below to comment on the rate of wages received 

 by these permanent servants ; it is only important to mention 

 here that the ploughmen and drivers were engaged, when the 

 work of the fields was over, in home occupations, such as thresh- 

 ing; as a rule, too, the winnowing was done by women, and 

 especially by the dairy- woman, whose house-work in winter 

 was comparatively light. 



In dealing generally with the price of these services we 

 should be led to anticipate that although, of course, the remu- 

 neration of agriculturists and mechanics is determined gene- 

 rally by the relation between the population and the demand 

 for labour, in other words by the number of persons competing 

 for employment and the amount of wages which can be divided 

 among such competitors, that changes in the rate of remunera- 

 tion will in ordinary times be very gradual ; that if a sudden 

 rise takes place, it must be assigned to some great diminution 

 in the supply of labour; and that if the rise be sudden and 

 permanent, some considerable improvement has taken place 

 in the condition of labourers which they are unwilling to 

 forego, and which, by some of those means which are familiar 



c The 'daye' is sometimes a male. See vol. ii. p. 333. in. 



