LABOUR AND WAGES. 641 



food were increased on the whole nearly sevenfold over those 

 which prevailed before the general rise of prices occurred, 

 while the rate of wages, in this kind of labour, has hardly in- 

 creased threefold. It is no wonder then that pauperism 

 increased so seriously in the seventeenth century, that the 

 poor-rate was equal to a third of the taxes granted in time of 

 peace, and that Gregory King considered that the men who 

 made the nation's wealth were a burden on the accumula- 

 tive powers of the nation, when compared with the gains of 

 those who got or stole the wealth. 



There is one kind of labour, fairly common in the earlier 

 period, which I had hoped would have supplied me with sufficient 

 evidence for decennial averages at least. This is the work of 

 the plasterer or pargetter, the workman who did the lath and 

 plaster work which was so common in private houses, or who 

 filled up with similar work the angular spaces in timber- 

 framed houses. But paper buildings, as they were called, were 

 not very common in college buildings, in which durability was 

 a first consideration. But this kind of construction was ex- 

 ceedingly common in private houses, and when judiciously 

 renewed on the outside is very enduring. There are I do not 

 doubt timber-houses in Oxford which have been covered from 

 time to time with lath and plaster and are as old as the 

 days of the Edwards. 



But the last entry which I have found of plasterers or par- 

 getters' work is in 1650, when a rise very like that which is 

 visible in the wages of other craftsmen is seen. Up to that 

 time, with rare exceptions, the work of this craftsman was not 

 paid better than that of a common carpenter or mason, if it is 

 not fractionally worse paid. I therefore abandoned all idea of 

 presenting averages of this work, and it is sufficient to say 

 that it is nearly always paid at 6s. a week up to the sixth 

 decade, and at 8j. afterwards. 



There is only one kind of agricultural labour for which 

 there is nearly continuous information, only one year failing 

 me. This is the labour of digging, hedging, or ditching, when 



VOL. v. T t 



