ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 507 



various kinds of artisan and supplementary labour, being the 

 rise during the last forty-two years. In the same period, the 

 rise in the price of wheat was a little more than from three 

 to seven. 



It has been stated above (p. 439 sqq.) that the use of bricks 

 becomes general towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century, 

 and is common in the sixteenth. The first entry of the brick- 

 layer under that name is in 1476, when this service is hired at 

 Oxford. It is next found in 1503, and at the same place. 

 I do not discover it again till 1518. But after this date it 

 is very common, and from 1532 it is nearly as frequent a kind 

 of labour as that of the mason, being paid at about the same 

 rate of wages. I do not find that the bricklayer is ever paid 

 by piece-work. 



Though my accounts supply me with very little information 

 as to the early employment of bricklayers (and it is probable 

 that at first they are included under the name of masons, i.e. 

 latomi and cementarii} \ there is no doubt, from the earlier 

 entries of bricks, and from the fact that many brick buildings 

 are in existence of the fifteenth century, that. this artisan was 

 known before his name is recorded. But Henry the Eighth 

 was the first English king who built extensively in brick, and 

 it is certain that in his reign the art of making good bricks 

 and of laying them in a workmanlike manner reached per- 

 fection. No brickwork is so good as that done in the first 

 half of the sixteenth century, whether we consider the quality 

 of the material, or the skill with which the building was con- 

 structed. In all likelihood the best bricklayers came from the 

 Low Countries, as the art of brickmaking was early carried on 

 there, and introduced from thence into Europe. But for a long 

 time, as the reader may infer from the cost of bricks, this kind 

 of architecture was by far the most expensive. Perhaps the 

 great cost of building in brick recommended it to that most 

 extravagant of English kings, Henry the Eighth. 



There are a few other prices of artisan's labour which should 

 be commented on. Eighteen entries of glazier's wages by the 



