LABOUR AND WAGES. 617 



This was in accordance with the language and purposes of the 

 statute, which my reader will find to have been almost minutely 

 recited in the Lancashire assessment. The reason for this 

 rule was obvious. The purpose of Elizabeth's counsellors, on 

 paper at least, was that the justices in drawing up their scales 

 should take into consideration what was the price of food, 

 especially of wheat (the crop of which, collected in the previous 

 autumn, was estimated with sufficient precision by the middle 

 of April), and also of clothing and other necessaries. The 

 Queen and her counsellors in point of fact suggested that, in 

 drawing up these schedules of wages and enforcing the maxi- 

 mum rate with severe penalties, the justices should follow on 

 the lines of the famous and familiar Assise of Bread and Beer, 

 and that therefore wages should rise and fall with the price 

 of the necessaries of life. We shall soon see to what extent 

 the quarter sessions assessment followed this suggestion. 



Now these assessments are of the following dates and 

 localities : 



Wheat. Malt. Oatmeal. 



s. d. s. d. t. d. 



Chester April 24, 1591 ... 22 6 20 o 38 8 



York, East Riding April 26, 1593 ... 18 8 12 o 22 10 



Chester April, 1594 ... 20 o "4 28 o 



Lancashire (printed Aug. 30) l , 1595 ... 40 o 21 4 38 8 



Rutland April 28, 1610 ... 28 o 15 4 



Gloucestershire... (no date) 1632 ... 38 8 21 4 74 o 



Essex April 8, 1651 ... 46 o 23 o 65 7 



Gloucestershire... (no date) 1655 ... 20 o 16 o 39 8 



Essex Easter, 1661 ... 42 8 22 8 53 6 



Suffolk April 24, 1682 ... 33 4 17 6 59 5 



Warwickshire ... April 8, 1684 ... 36 o 19 o 62 o 



The wheat, malt, and oatmeal prices have been taken from 

 cheap markets, in order that the assessment may be interpreted 

 from the most favourable aspect of the justices' equity. It 

 should also be added, that corn, especially in dear years, was 

 a little lower in price in the North than it was in the other 



1 This is the date at which the assessment is issued by the Queen's printer. 

 It was of course drawn up some time before, probably, as Easter was late in 1595 

 (April 20) , at the end of April. 



