DATES OF RISE IN WAGES. 733 



the whole period subsequent to 1548 it is only once double 

 the lowest rate in the years preceding 1548, and is never 

 double the average. But the price of wheat had risen more 

 than two and a half times. 



There are indications, rather stronger than in the earlier 

 period, that the high price of wheat in a given year was ac- 

 companied by an elevation in the rate of wages. Sometimes 

 it occurs in the dear year, more frequently it appears in the 

 following year. But it is quite manifest that the rate of wages 

 now earned by the labourer was hardly sufficient for the 

 existence of himself and his children I assume that his wife 

 aided the family resources by her wages and that many 

 persons suffered the direst poverty, those in particular who 

 could not eke out their wages by the cultivation of small plots 

 of land. It is thus, too, that we can see that the policy of 

 Elizabeth's abortive statute, 31 Eliz., cap. 7 1 , was to supplement 

 insufficient wages by making allotments of land to cottagers 

 obligatory on the owners of property. 



The rise in the price of fish begins at a somewhat earlier 

 date. The evidence is rather scanty, as might be expected, 

 after the dissolution of the monasteries, but a marked exalta- 

 tion in prices is seen as early as 1542. It is practically 

 permanent at and after 1548, though, as must be allowed in 

 an article, the yield of which is so uncertain or capricious, 

 there are occasionally very cheap years even in the latter 

 period. This is notably the case with deep sea fish from 1564 

 to 1568 inclusive. 



The price of linen and clothing is of less obvious interpre- 

 tation, as the earlier entries sometimes exhibit very high prices. 

 But if the decennial averages are taken, the rise will be seen 

 to be sharp after 1541, and to steadily increase in the next 



1 This statute prohibited, under the penalty of 10, the erection of any cottages 

 unless four acres of land were attached to them, and prescribed that not more than one 

 family should inhabit a cottage. I think I am right in inferring, notwithstanding the 

 language of the 'preamble, that the purpose of this act was to better the condition of the 

 poor. 



