Off THE PURCHASING POWER OF WAGES. 



827 



Poor however as these wages are, and markedly as they 

 are to be contrasted with those which ruled a century before, 

 they are a good deal higher than those allowed by the 

 justices' assessments. If we take the same artisans and 

 labourers as arc contained in the averages of the foregoing 

 table with the allowances made to the same classes of work- 

 men in York (1593), m Lancashire (i.595), in Rutland (1610), 

 in Gloucester (1632), in Essex (1651), in Gloucester (1655), 



