298 ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



which it was impossible to keep, may be confounded in Knygh- 

 ton's mind with a tax of twenty shillings on every carucate of 

 land and a fifteenth on personal estate granted at about this 

 time. Many of the labourers were thrown into prison ; many 

 to avoid punishment fled to the forests, but were occasionally 

 captured and fined ; and all were constrained to disavow under 

 oath that they would take higher than customary wages for 

 the future. In the winter which followed the Plague flocks and 

 herds wandered about at will, without herdsman, shepherd, or 

 owner. Many of the lords excused their tenants' rents, lest 

 they should quit their holdings from the want of farm hands 

 and the increasing dearness of materials, the remission of rent 

 extending sometimes to a half, sometimes entirely for one, 

 two, or three years, as they could arrange with the farmer. 

 Similarly, (I am still quoting from Knyghton,) they who had 

 let lands to tenants at labour-rents, such as those which form 

 the basis of villenage, were compelled to release and remit such 

 labours, and either to utterly excuse them or to rehabilitate 

 them on easier terms and less payments, lest the loss and ruin 

 should become irreparable and the land lie utterly uncultivated. 

 This account of the effects of the scarcity of labour on rent is 

 natural, and, in fact, not much exaggerated. 



The first remedy devised by the executive against the claims 

 of the labourers was, as I have said, the proclamation of the 

 king addressed to William the Primate. It is said that this 

 expedient was adopted in consequence of the panic which 

 prevented the sitting of Parliament. The statute of the next 

 year is stated in nearly the same words as the proclamation. 

 Both were formally repealed by 5th Eliz,. The proclamation 

 contains eight clauses. The first is to the effect that no persons 

 under the age of sixty years, whether serf or free, should 

 decline to undertake farm labour at the rates which had been 

 customary in the twentieth year of the king, except they lived 

 by merchandise, were regularly engaged in some mechanical 

 craft, were possessed of private means, or were occupiers of 

 land. The lord was to have the first claim to the labour of his 



