622 LABOUR AND WAGES. 



not differ materially from that drawn up in the same county 

 in June 1563, nearly half a century before. 



In the spring of 1610 the price of wheat was 2,8s., of malt 

 15$-. 4//. This is one of the few years in which I have not 

 found the price of oatmeal between September and September. 

 But shortly after Michaelmas 1610 the price is 32^., and I am 

 quite convinced that it was not less than this in the spring, 

 for on the whole oats are dear in the early part of the year. 

 Now allowing a month for harvest, and taking the highest rate 

 (io</.) for the days in it, the peasant's yearly wages would be 

 8 Ss. yd., and the artisan's 12 loj. But at the prices given 

 above, the aggregate cost of the provisions of which certain 

 quantities have been taken for purposes of comparison would 

 be 9 I4s. The Rutlandshire peasant could not procure them 

 with much less than fifty-eight weeks' labour, while the artisan 

 could acquire them with a little less than thirty-nine weeks' 

 employment. With few exceptions, the cost of the labourer's 

 board is reckoned at 4d. a day, of the woman's at $d. 



The next assessment (which I found myself in Rawlinson 

 MSS. C. 358) is said to be in the handwriting of one Oliver 

 Acton. This person has left a considerable number of papers 

 in a volume, chiefly on what we should call social questions. 

 His object in the paper from which I make these extracts is 

 to compare the scales of 1632 with that of 1655, the authority 

 in each case being the quarter sessions assessments. The 

 month in which the assessments are made is not given, but it 

 was no doubt as usual in the spring. 



The year 1632 was rather a dear year. The cost of wheat 

 at Lady Day was 38^. 8^., of malt 2U. 4^., and oatmeal is at 

 the great price of 74^. the quarter. The wages of the day- 

 labourer are %d. a day ; but another class, called taskers, get 8d. 

 in the summer and 6d. in the winter half of the year. Reapers 

 get is. a day. Chief carpenters and free masons have u., 

 slaters and tilers is. id. Now at the above prices the aggre- 

 gate cost of the provisions is 16 8s., the wages of the peasant 

 taking the highest rate, and giving a month of harvest wages, 



