98 DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND 



summer labour. The price of food was increased by about 

 75 per cent., labour was kept at nearly its old rates. 



In 1651, the Essex magistrates fixed the wages for the 

 county. They raised them decidedly. It is true that wheat 

 was 55 s. ^d. the quarter, malt %6s. 6\d., and oats 13^. 9^., 

 oatmeal being 6$s. yd. But the county magistrates under 

 the Commonwealth were more generous than they were under 

 the Monarchy, for the wages of labour are raised from fifty to 

 a hundred per cent. 



In 1661, the Essex magistrates again met and issued their 

 schedule. It does not differ materially from what it stood 

 at ten years before. At Easter, 1661, the price of wheat, 

 barley and oats did not materially differ from that at which 

 they stood at ten years before. 



In 1682, the Suffolk magistrates met at Bury and put out 

 a schedule, which is lower than that of thirty years before 

 in a neighbouring county. Wheat was 36^. of aT., malt 2,5$. $\d., 

 oats i6s. 3\d.> and oatmeal 69^. lod. in the year 1681-2. 



On April 9, 1684, the Warwickshire magistrates put out 

 their assessment. In this year, 1683-4, the price of wheat 

 was 37^. 4^., of malt im. 5!^., of oats 15^. 5<, of oatmeal 6is. 

 Here the artisan is to have is. a day, the labourer %d., and 

 the hours were twelve in the summer, and from daybreak to 

 night for the rest of the year, i.e. from the middle of Septem- 

 ber to the middle of March. If the workman is absent he is 

 to be fined a penny an hour, i.e. about 50 per cent, above his 

 earnings when present. Those who give more wages than the 

 prescribed assessment are to be fined 5, and be imprisoned for 

 ten days ; they who take more are to be imprisoned twenty- 

 one days ; and any retainer, promise, gift, or payment of wages 

 in contravention of the order is to be void and of no effect. 

 This is the last assessment which I have seen within the 

 period before me. 



No one can I think doubt that it was the purpose of the 

 magistrates to grind the wages of labour below the level of 

 bare subsistence, and that to this persistent policy must be as- 



