28o ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



by the acre. The rise in this service is notable. Before the 

 Plague the highest sum paid for this service is 8d. j in the period 

 after the Plague it is charged at from is. to is. 6d. 



Tiles are made at \\d. the thousand in 1337, and laid at 

 prices ranging from yd. before 1348 to 9^. after that date. 

 Corner-tiles are laid in the latter part of the period at \od. the 

 hundred. Slates, at a very early date, are quoted as dug for 

 is. 6d. the thousand. 



The manufacture of malt, and the charges incurred, are 

 quoted on several occasions. The price varies very considerably. 

 In the earliest entry it is set down at \d. the quarter, and the 

 latest entry only makes it id. But between these prices we 

 have 6d. in 1361, 5^. in 1299 and 1301, \d. in 1327 and 1340. 

 The monopoly of this service possessed by those who held a 

 franchise in the manor mill is quite sufficient to account for 

 the discrepancy. 



The labour of washing and shearing sheep seems to have 

 been performed generally, at least in the earlier part of the 

 period before us, by women. The rate of payment is remark- 

 ably uniform, and the rise is equally so. Thus up to the end 

 of the thirteenth century, sheep are washed and shorn at a 

 penny the score ; in the first twenty years of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury the rate is at sixteen a penny, afterwards at ten a penny, 

 and ultimately at eight a penny. It will be seen below that 

 the sheep were very small, and the fleece very light. On one 

 occasion the women engaged in this labour ( 1 339) are paid each 

 \ \d. a day, and fed into the bargain. It is possible that, when 

 tar-dressing for the scab became frequent at about the close of 

 the thirteenth century, the labour became also greater, and 

 necessarily more highly paid. 



The smith generally worked by the piece. Iron or steel was 

 served out to him, and he was paid at so much by the garb or 

 piece. As a rule, the cost of working iron into instruments, 

 tools, shoes, and nails, was the same as the price of the raw 

 material, that is, iron was worked at about $d. the piece, steel 

 at 8d. or Q)d. the bundle or garb. At the end of the period 



