ON THE PURCHASING POWER OF WAGES. 69! 



fore the proportion would be still more in favour of the labourer 

 500 years ago. 



We have by no means included all the elements in the cal- 

 culation. Not to insist on the fact so often commented on, 

 that all the tenants of the manor had land, we must recollect 

 that the house-rent paid by the medieval tenant was almost 

 nominal. But in the case of the labourer in Young's time this 

 forms a notable element, the average which he has gathered 

 being ^i 8.r. 2^., besides j^i 3*. \\d. for firing. That is, we 

 must deduct out of an income of ^18 4$-. 7^., (reckoning the 

 year at 50 weeks,) 1 izs. id. for these incidents. On the 

 other hand, it is certain that the rent of a cottage and cur- 

 tilage was, in the fourteenth century, never much more than 

 y. a-year, and that fuel could be easily obtained by right in most 

 cases from the common woods and the turbary. In short, if we 

 deduct these items from the labourer's wages, we shall find that 

 while the peasant of the eighteenth century had ^15 its. 6d. 

 to spend on his maintenance at the rates of that time, the 

 farm labourer had ^a 7*. 



But there yet remains the fact, that the permanently hired 

 labourers in husbandry of the Middle Ages were for the most 

 part single men, and, as I have said above, were in all likeli- 

 hood the sons of the small farmers. Now Young tells us in the 

 same place, (and he quotes the fact as a singular discrepancy, 

 because, to his view, the rate is disproportionately high,) that 

 the wages of a first-class hind hired by the year, a full calcula- 

 tion being made for board and lodging, were, on an average, 

 ^10 8j. 6</., that is, that the hind's keep and wages cost the 

 farmer so much. In other words, while the price of commodi- 

 ties had risen in Young's time from eight to twelve times, the 

 hired labourer's wages had risen little more than four times 

 over the amount which prevailed after the Plague. 



It will be remembered, that although wheat was dearer than 

 customary in the year 1771, all other kinds of provision were 

 very cheap. 



The condition of the working classes during the great 



Y y 2 



