ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 273 



performed by the regular servants of the house, or by women who 

 worked either by the day or by the piece. Some few entries are 

 found which illustrate the rate paid on the latter plan. Thus 

 hay is made at i\d. an acre in 1273, at 3&. in 1281, at id. in 

 1282 and 1284, at i\d. in 1285, at \\d. in 1286, at id. in 1308, 

 at 3^. in 1314, at 4^. in 1322, at 3^. in 1323, at $d. in 1327, 

 at $d. in 1342 and 1343, at 6d. in 1349 and 1350, at id. in 1354 

 and 1355, at id. in 1398, at i\d. in 1399 and 1400. These 

 prices, though very various, and not as suggestive as some 

 others, shew nevertheless that, on certain occasions at least, 

 this kind of labour experienced a rise analogous to that which 

 occurred in the wages paid for mowing. 



Again, the record of the wages paid for the labour of the 

 thatcher is equally instructive. Thatcher's work is partly that the 

 demand for which is urgent at particular times, as, for instance, 

 when it is needed to cover stacks after harvest, partly that 

 which can be demanded at the discretion of the employer, as in 

 covering buildings. Hence it might be expected to exhibit an 

 average rise, and to be somewhat less highly paid on the occa- 

 sion of a dearth of hands than harvest-work, and more highly 

 paid than barn or in-door work. 



This we shall find to be the fact. The same phenomenon 

 of a rise during the decade 1310-1320, as in the case of other 

 kinds of labour, is discernible, and a rate slightly higher than 

 the average prevailing before the famines is permanently 

 established. 



The wages paid are ranged in three columns. The first of 

 these gives the day wages of the thatcher himself, the second 

 the wages of his help, or c homo,' the third the joint wages of 

 the two when the account does not distinguish the rate payable 

 to each. The relations implied by these several payments, and 

 the effect produced upon each by the scarcity of hands conse- 

 quent on the Plague, are, when the payments are examined, 

 very instructive. 



The help, or homo, is generally a woman. In the early part of 

 the time before us women were employed for out-door work, and 



