DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. II 9 



wages, and other servants also in certain years what is greatly 

 in excess of these rates. 



The wages of mechanics are at two rates, those from Easter 

 to Michaelmas, and those from Michaelmas to Easter. They 

 vary also as the mechanic is boarded or not. The freemason 

 and master carpenter are to receive during the longer days $\d. 

 cr 4^., during the shorter ^\d. or %d. ; the master tiler and 

 slater, the rough mason, mean carpenter and other persons 

 engaged in building, ^\d. or $d. in the longer days, 4^. or i\d. 

 in the shorter; common labour 3^. or id., and $d. or \\d. ; 

 the lower sums in each period being the payments made when 

 the labourer is boarded, the maintenance of an adult being 

 reckoned throughout at \\d. a day. During harvest time 

 wages are raised. The mower receives 6d. or 4^., the reaper 

 and carter $d. or 3^., women and others ^\d. or 2\d. The 

 estimate of board at harvest time is twopence a day. In 

 the time of Elizabeth, the crown constantly contracts for the 

 board of labourers employed by it, at the rate of 8d. or yd. a day. 

 It is very doubtful whether the statute was kept; it is certain that 

 piecework becomes frequent during the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries, and this in agricultural as well as in other labour. 



The Statute of Wages was re-enacted in most of its par- 

 ticulars by ii Hen. VII, cap. 22, and by 6 Hen. VIII, cap. 3, 

 the provisions of the later statute being as follows : the bailiff 

 is to have 26s. %d. and $s. ; the carter and shepherd zos. and 

 5^-. ; the common servant i6s. 8d. and 4^.; women los. and 4^-.; 

 children under fourteen 6s. 8d. and 4^. There is a slight rise 

 of the money wages and clothing in the case of some. 



The wages of mechanics are to be as follows : the master 

 mason is to receive 7^. or $d. ; the freemason, master carpenter, 

 rough mason, bricklayer, master tiler, plumber, glazier, carver, 

 and joiner, are to have 6d. or ^d. from Easter to Michaelmas, 

 and 5<f. or 3^. from Michaelmas to Easter. Ordinary labourers 

 are to have <\d. or id. and $d. or \\d. 



But a new class of labour is regulated, that of shipwrights, 

 md another division of time, from Candlemas to Michaelmas, 



