ARTISANS' WAGES. 755 



advantage, frequently or even generally, of being a capitalist, 

 and of dealing in the article on which he worked, as well as re- 

 ceiving wages for his labour. I draw my inference again from 

 the fact that, when he was impressed in the service of the 

 Crown, he is brought from long distances, well fed and lodged 

 by the Crown, paid pretty well in addition, and presented with 

 journey-money when he was dismissed. That inferior artisans 

 shared in that decline of the condition of ordinary work, which 

 is so marked in unskilled labour, may readily be believed. 



The artisan, before 1540, could earn on an average, taking 

 fifty weeks as the amount of his yearly labour, about 7 a year. 

 It is to be noted that at Windsor, in 1408, four carpenters are 

 paid 6d. a day all the year through, weekdays, Sundays, and 

 holidays alike, and receive therefore .9 2s. 6d. a year each. 

 Not to dwell on the extraordinary demand made by Henry VIII 

 on his workmen, who are kept to labour constantly, not only 

 on Sundays and holidays, but sometimes by night, two things 

 are clear as to the labour of those who worked for ordinary 

 employers. In the first place it is plain that they did not 

 cease working on all Church holidays, as a cursory glance on 

 the wages paid by the fellows of Merton in building their 

 tower will prove, though if the workmen ceased from their 

 labours the employer only reckoned halves of days. The second 

 point is that the hours of customary labour could not have 

 been long. This, I think, is proved by the very short portion, 

 only the darkest part of the year, in which the slight reduction, 

 6d. a week, is made from weekly wages. The masons on the 

 Merton bell-tower get 3.$-. ^d. a week up to the fourth week in 

 October, and is. iod. from this date to the last week in 

 January, when the old rates are resumed. These rates appear 

 to me, deducting meal times, to point to an eight hours' day. 

 The inference which I draw is confirmed by the large number 

 of night hours occasionally given by a man who has done a 

 day's work already, in Needham's account of Henry's building 

 charges. The ordinary payment for day work, in 1532, is about 

 yd. But the extra hours are paid at id. an hour. Now if the 



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