LABOUR AND WAGES. 637 



scale, and next to adjust or modify the scale to the necessary 

 facts. But the whole situation will come out more clearly 

 when the rise in wages is compared with the rise in prices, 

 and the purchasing power of wages at different periods is 

 derived from a summary of the facts. I may here merely 

 state that the average price of wheat for the first sixty years 

 was 36.$-. of*/., of malt 2is. 4d., and of oatmeal 375-. ^\d. ; of 

 the next sixty, 41 s. \\\d. y 24*. i\d. t and 51*. nd. When the 

 rise was once effected, the rate of wages became permanent, 

 and remained nearly unchanged for more than a century, i. e. 

 at least to the time of Arthur Young's Tours. 



The allowance for ' meat and drink,' when the labourer 

 found himself, was obviously insufficient. The Northern rate 

 is ^d. a day, and in some cases less, i. e. 2s. a week at best. 

 Now in vol. iv. p. 753, I have quoted the rates paid for 

 boarding workmen at the dock-yards, especially in those years 

 when the average price of wheat was 21 s. $\d. In the four 

 years of the Northern assessments, when the allowance was 

 2s. a week, the average was 31-5*. Nor at any time, however 

 high was the price of provisions, did the allowance for meat 

 and drink go beyond $s. a week. 



In early times, as I have noticed in my former volumes, 

 allowances of drink, or of beer and bread, were made to work- 

 men in addition to their money wages, under the name of 

 nonsheynes, bevers, and beverage. The custom may have 

 been continued, and as the allowance was taken from the 

 household store, may not be noted. But when the workman 

 was in the employ of a master, it is not likely, except as a 

 mere piece of good-nature, that the person who engaged work- 

 men would always covenant to find them refreshment, and it 

 is certain if money was given in place of this allowance, 

 that it would appear in the accounts. But I have very rarely 

 found allusion to such a commutation. In 1602, the city of 

 Oxford hires a carpenter and his son, and pays them 19^. 8d. 

 for thirteen days' labour. It also allows $s. ^d. for ' bevers to 

 both/ or a little over $d. a day. Again, in 1624 New College 



