120 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



and from Michaelmas to Candlemas, is recognised. The master 

 shipwright is to have yd. or 5^. and 6d. or 4^. ; the ship carpenter 

 or hewer 6d. or 4^. and 5^. or 3^. ; the able clincher 5^. or 3^. 

 and 4\d. or i\d. ; the holder 4^. or 2^. and 3</. or i\d.\ the 

 master caulker 6a?. or 4^. and 5^. or $d. ; the mean caulker 

 $d. or 3^f. an,d 4^. or <i\d. ; the tide caulker 4^. a tide with 

 food. 



The agricultural labourers in harvest are to have : mowers 

 6d. or 4^., reapers and carters $d. or 3^., women and others 

 4d. or i\d. No wages are to be paid for holidays or half-days. 



By 7 Hen. VIII, cap. 6, artisans and labourers in London 

 are allowed to take higher wages in consideration of their high 

 house-rent, the greater cost of food, and their liability to the 

 offices of constable and scavenger, and the charge of scot 

 and lot. 



It will be noticed that these rates differ from those of 

 23 Hen. VI almost entirely by the larger margin allowed for 

 board. I shall reserve the comment on the efficiency of these 

 statutes till I deal with the wages actually paid for labour by 

 king and subject. 



The provisions of 7 Hen. IV were re-enacted by 5 Eliz., 

 and were now made effectual, at least as far as regards 

 the regularity with which the magistrates in quarter sessions 

 fixed the rate of wages to be paid to agricultural labourers. 

 I had hoped to be able to find some record of the various rates 

 as fixed by these officials in the several counties, as in such a 

 case one would have been able to infer to the comparative 

 condition of these several localities. But the archives of 

 quarter sessions for so early a date have seldom or never been 

 preserved, and I have had no satisfactory answer to my in- 

 quiries on this point. I can however supply from Elizabeth's 

 proclamations the following for the county of Rutland. It was 

 certainly imitated by at least the neighbouring counties. 



A certificate of the rates of wages of artificers, labourers, and 

 servants rated and served by the justices of peace, within the county 

 of Rutland, the seventh day of the month of June [i.e. 1563], in the 



