LABOUR AND WAGES. 629 



to understand the rights which have recently been conferred 

 on him, or distrust and repudiate those who have been his 

 oppressors for centuries. 



The assessment system could not be extended to London, 

 and no doubt the best workmen eagerly sought the best 

 market and free conditions of labour. The greater part of my 

 later entries come from London, and most of them from the 

 accounts of the City churches, rebuilt under Wren's superin- 

 tendence after the great fire, and for the repair of Westminster 

 Abbey, to which, beginning with the last six years of the present 

 period, Parliament made considerable grants. The rates paid 

 there are probably, apart from the special position of the 

 London workman, those of the best artisans which could be 

 found, for still, as in the middle ages, the architect relied a 

 good deal on the skill of the men who worked under him. 

 The assessments show that the master carpenter and master 

 mason were expected to be able to design. And thus even 

 while the wages of such persons are low, it early began to be 

 the custom to contract with them for definite pieces of work ; 

 and later on, when they still give bills of particulars, the items 

 tend to be more of work done tham of the cost of labour in its 

 completion. Thus early in the seventeenth century, Merton 

 College contracts with Akroyd, a Halifax mason, to do all the 

 mason's work in the new quadrangle, and with another person 

 to do the carpentry, both at fixed sums, whereas itself supplies 

 the timber and rents the quarry from which the stone is to 

 be procured. 



It will now be convenient to examine in some detail the 

 evidence of actual wages paid, and noted in the sixth volume. 

 As usual, the largest amount comes from Oxford, Cambridge, 

 and Eton, but other localities are to be found. And here I 

 may observe that Oxford wages are generally among the 

 lowest found, and I cannot but conclude that the various 

 Colleges who hired labour must have appealed to an assess- 

 ment which has not been discovered. On the other hand, the 

 highest provincial wages are those paid in Canterbury, and I 



