ON THE PURCHASING POWER OF WAGES. 829 



if the same self-interest were permitted to assert itself, is 

 indignant at what may appear to be remote misdeeds, because 

 he knows that the consequences of them still survive, and 

 that the men who did the wrong in time past would do it 

 in time present if they had their way and their chance. Of 

 all the men one should distrust, none are more to be avoided 

 or exposed, as prudence suggests or opportunity offers, than 

 those who parade false ideals, for the sake of their private 

 greed or ambition l . 



It yet remains that I should point out how, in prices of 

 the time, the pittance which the labourer earned could be 

 expended. During the last sixty years of the century, when 

 labour had achieved a rise, the carpenter (p. 672) could earn 

 los. z\d. a week, the mason gs. iof*/., the pair of sawyers 

 19^. oj</., the tiler or slater gs. 8f*/., the tiler's help $s. 3^., 

 the artisan's labourer 6s. 7^., and the first-class agricultural 

 hand 6s. 4\d. Now there are many illustrations given in 

 Arthur Young, and collected during the course of his tours, 

 of the cost to which the labourer was put for his maintenance, 

 and except that agricultural rent and wages were a little 

 raised in Young's time, the change in other prices is not, 

 taking the experience of the first three quarters of the 

 eighteenth century, materially important in forming an esti- 

 mate. Now if we assume that these several labourers worked 

 for fifty weeks a year, and this is a very liberal, perhaps ex- 

 cessive, estimate, the average yearly wages of the carpenter, 

 from 1643 to 1702 inclusive, will be 2$ us. $\d., of the mason 

 24 I4S. 9J</., of the pair of sawyers 43 is. o\d., of the 

 tiler 24 6s. 2\d., of the tiler's help 1$ 4*. yd., of the 

 artisan's labourer 16 $s. $\d., and of the best paid agri- 

 cultural labourer 15 19^. <)\d. Now the average price of 

 wheat during these sixty years is 41 s. n{d., of malt 22s. 2\d. t 

 of oatmeal 52*. nd., of beef $s. $\d. the stone of 14 Ibs. or 

 nearly $d. a pound, of mutton and pork the same price, of 

 butter a little over 6d. a pound. It is probable that most 



> ' Qui questtu sui causa, fictas roscitant Kntentias.' Cic. De Divinatiooo. 



