LABOUR AND WAGES. 623 



are ^10 Ss. 4d. ; and of the artisan, at is. id. a day, 16 $s. 

 The peasant would have to give nearly eighty weeks' work to 

 get his store, the artisan his whole year's labour and a little 

 more. 



The year 1655, with which Mr. Acton compares 1632, was 

 a decidedly cheap year. At Lady Day, wheat was only 2OJ-. 

 a quarter, malt i6j., and oatmeal 39^. Sd. The day-labourer 

 now gets iod., the tasker iod. in summer, Sd. in winter, the 

 head carpenter and free mason, is. &/., while the slater and 

 tiler are kept at the wages of twenty-three years ago. The 

 harvest-work is at is. 4d. the day. At the above prices the 

 aggregate cost of the provisions is now 9 Js. ^d. The 

 peasant's wages, allowing a month for harvest as before, are 

 now .13 2s. 6d., and he could procure his store, if he worked 

 300 days, with a little less than thirty-five weeks' labour. The 

 chief carpenter and mason under these improved conditions 

 could earn 25 a year, the tiler and slater 17 los. The 

 former could procure them with a little less than nineteen 

 weeks' labour, the latter with a little less than thirty. 



I now go to the assessment made at Chelmsford in Essex, 

 on April 8, 1651. The original is a contemporary fly sheet, 

 the Bodleian reference of which is Gough, Essex, 31. In this 

 the year is divided into two portions, from March 16 to Sep- 

 tember 15, and from September 16 to March 15. By some 

 error the justices refer to 'the statute 29 Eliz.' The par- 

 ticulars it will be seen are very copious and exhaustive, for 

 the county is manufacturing as well as agricultural. 



In summer the labourer's wages are i s. id. the day, in winter 

 is. Mowers are paid at is. 6d. the day, reapers at is. iod., 

 women reapers getting i s. 2d. The master mason or carpenter 

 gets is. 6d. a day in summer, is. +d. in winter. A master 

 shipwright and a master caulker get 2s. and i s. 4d. The year 

 is a dear one, the dearest of all those for which assessments 

 have been found. Wheat is 46*., malt 23^., oatmeal 65*. yd. 

 a quarter. The cost of the store of provisions is therefore 

 16 i8s. id. The wages of a master carpenter and mason, 



