02V THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



497 



are doubtlessly of very different sizes. But the price paid 

 declines. Between 1404 and 1420 it is never below iod., and 

 once it is is.; from 1424 to 1449 ** * s %& 5 fr m 1526 to 1547 

 it is 6d., once >jd. In 1550 it is &/., in 1551 and 1559 it is yd. 

 In 1560 an exceptional payment of zs. is made. In 1568 it is 

 ic*/., in 1572 and 1574 8d. again, and in 1580 lod. Making 

 kiddes or kiddles costs 6d. in 1414. Splitting astells is paid 

 in fourteen entries at from $d. to ^d. the hundred, generally the 

 former. Malt-making is paid at from 6d. to ^d. the quarter ; 

 making hurdles at 6d. the dozen, cutting ' cirpi ' at 6d. the 

 load, and mowing reeds at >j\d. to 8d. the hundred bundles. 

 These are all early prices. Burning lime is also paid in the 

 earlier period, and in Sussex, at icd. the quarter, though it is 

 occasionally much lower. The higher prices probably include 

 the cost of fuel l . 



The weekly wages of a labourer who is fed at the common 

 table vary from is. gd. to is. His maintenance is valued at 

 from \\d. to id. a day. These again are early dates. I shall 

 refer below, in treating of the wages paid to workmen on royal 

 works, to the cost incurred by the Crown during the reign of 

 Elizabeth for boarding and lodging workmen. 



Several entries occur as to the cost of washing and shearing 

 sheep by the hundred. The price varies greatly, not only 

 from year to year, but in different places in the same year. 

 The following are decennial averages for such decades as occur, 

 reckoned in pence and decimals by the hundred sheep. The 

 entries are for fifty-five years in all. 



14611470 

 14711480 

 14811490 

 15011510 

 15311540 



The highest charges are those in the first forty years of the 



1 Faggot-making by the day is from \d. to 5^. (Vol. Ill, p. 611, ii), and therefore a 

 workman was supposed to be able to cut and bind fifty faggots a day. 

 VOL. IV. K k 



