270 ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



inoperative. The general rise is 59 1 per cent.; wheat and 

 barley being at the rate of 51 per cent., drage at 44, rye at 47, 

 beans, peas, and vetches at 59, and oats at 69 per cent. As 

 before, we find that the rise is the most marked in the payment 

 made for reaping the cheapest kind of grain, and I cannot 

 doubt that a larger increase would have marked the rate for 

 reaping drage and rye, had not the information about these kinds 

 of grain been comparatively scanty. 



It may be observed, also, that the highest rate prevails in the 

 twenty years between 1371 and 1390, during which the rise ex- 

 ceeds by 100 per cent, or even more the proportion paid a 

 century before, and is even, taking all kinds of corn together, 

 30 per cent, above that of the twenty years immediately 

 succeeding the Plague. But during the twenty years 1371- 

 1390, all kinds of grain except beans were below the average; 

 wheat being 5*. 7!^. the quarter, barley y. 7^., drage 3^. oj^., 

 oats zs. 3^/., rye y. ioj^., beans 4$-. 4^., peas 35-. 3^., and 

 vetches 3^. 5^. ; a sufficient proof, if any were needed, that 

 when the relations of labour and wages are not disturbed by 

 any circumstances or regulations which can interfere with the 

 operation of economical causes, there is no reciprocity be- 

 tween the price of food and labours. 



It is manifest,, then, that the effect of the Plague, by inducing 

 a scarcity of hands, was even more markedly characteristic in 

 the rise of the payment made for reaping corn than it was in 

 that of threshing it. We can understand that the complaints 

 made by the landowners as to the ineffectual enactment of the 

 Statute of Labourers had their foundation in truth, however 

 little these complaints can be justified on equitable grounds. We 

 can also explain the fact that rents fell. Prices of produce 



e According to Walter de Henley, if wheat did not return more than three times the 

 seed, a loss was incurred by the agriculturist, except in dear years, that is when the price 

 is above 45. the quarter. His reckoning is as follows : The land is ploughed thrice, 

 each ploughing costs 6d. an acre; hoeing id. ; two bushels of seed at Michaelmas is. ; 

 second hoeing j,d. reaping 50?. ; carriage id. The straw or forage pays for the thresh- 

 ing. If, therefore, only six bushels are reaped to the acre, they will be worth only 35. and 

 will cost 35. l\d. It is to be observed that in this estimate no account is taken of the 

 rent of land. 



