SLOW RISE OF WAGES ^ 409 



that their extension was to the economic and moral advantage of 

 the labourer. It was calculated that the net profit from the produce 

 of a quarter of an acre of land added 2s. a week to wages. In 

 addition to money made, there was money saved. Men spent less 

 at the pubHc-house, and were less dependent on the shopkeeper for 

 their provisions. Morally there was an added feeUng of independence 

 and self-respect. Hard though the men worked after their day's 

 labour, their toil was more of a recreation than a task, because it 

 was bestowed on land which they themselves occupied. 



In 1846 came the repeal of the Corn Laws. In its first effects, 

 Free Trade was not favourable to agricultural labourers. Wages 

 were lowered, and food prices did not fall sufficiently to counter- 

 balance the loss. In the first impulse of despair at the anticipated 

 effects of the loss of Protection, many tenants threw up theh' hold- 

 ings. Much land was unlet. Employment became more and more 

 difficult to obtain. The years 1849 to 1853, which immediately 

 preceded the Crimean War and the era of agricultural prosperity, 

 were a period of severe depression. Economy of production was 

 necessarily the aim of employers. They naturally applied to their 

 own business the Free Trade maxim, '" Buy in the cheapest market ; 

 sell in the dearest." More machinery was introduced on the land. 

 Small farms were thrown together. There was no diminution in 

 the number of women and children employed ; the gang system, 

 both public and private, prevailed extensivelj^ in the Eastern 

 Counties ; the supply of labour was still largely in excess of the 

 demand. The competition of female and child labour continued to 

 depress wages. It was not till some control of the gang system was 

 estabhshed by the Gangs Act of 1867, and the employment of children 

 regulated by the Education Acts of 1870, 1873, and 1876, that 

 employers were deprived of the cheapest forms of labour. They 

 were, therefore, driven to employ a larger number of adult males. 

 But the population of rural districts still remained superabundant, 

 in spite of a constant stream of emigration, and wages advanced 

 httle and slowly. 



Public opinion was beginning to reahse the unsatisfactory 

 position of agricultural labourers. Reports from Medical Officers of 

 Health on the food, housing, and sanitary conditions of rural districts 

 aroused new feehngs of sympathy. The men themselves began to 

 entertain the idea of combining to enforce remedies. Between 1865 

 and 1871, in Scotland, Buckinghamshu-e, Hertfordshire, and Here- 



