506 ON THE PRICE OF LA SOUR. 



fraction from those of the carpenter ; and had the higher rate, 

 occasionally paid to the latter, been reckoned, would not have 

 differed at all. The mason and tiler are paid at the same rate, 

 the plumber, of whose wages I have only been able to give 

 decennial averages, and among these, not for the first decade, 

 gets a little more money than his fellow-craftsmen, but the rise 

 during the last forty-two years in the three kinds is almost 

 exactly identical ; from 6d. a day to <^\d. The thatcher's service, 

 which was supplied roughly by the ordinary farm hand, is notably 

 less than that of the tiler or slater. The wages of the mason's 

 labourer and the tiler's, slater's, or thatcher's help are almost 

 exactly identical with those of unskilled labour, and may be 

 taken as illustrative of them. 



Sawyers were paid by the couple. It is probable that in all 

 cases where this labour is hired the upper sawyer in the pit 

 was paid on an average 7^. a day, the lower $d., the cost of the 

 two hands being generally at a shilling a day, though some- 

 times slightly lower or slightly higher. But on an average it 

 stands at a shilling. The rise, however, is a little less than 

 that of other artisans, being a fraction below 50 per cent. ; the 

 rate at which the rise generally arrives. Almost equally frequent 

 with the day labour of the pair of sawyers is the piece rate paid 

 for sawing a hundred (c] of timber. This is a penny a hundred 

 higher on an average than the wages of the pair by the day. 

 It would seem, however, that a pair of sawyers, to judge from the 

 rate, were supposed to be able to saw a hundred feet of timber per 

 diem. The rise during the last forty-two years is less for this 

 piece-work than for any kind of labour; for while thirteen 

 pence a hundred is paid during the first part of the period, 

 only sixteen pence on an average is earned in the second. 



On reducing these averages to eighths of a penny for the 

 periods between 1401-1540 and 1541-1582, on taking the 

 former as a denominator and the latter as a numerator, and on 

 adding all the numerators and all the denominators together, 

 the gross sum amounts to f , which will be found to be nearly 

 two to three, the latter quantity, from a general estimate of the 



