CHAP. XX. INCREASED PRICES. Ill 



servants, and the manure they supplied made the 

 corn land more productive, so that with a much 

 smaller portion of labour a quantity of corn was 

 raised quite equal to the wants of the community. 

 Though manufactures were increasing, they could 

 not absorb the surplus of rural labour. The pri- 

 vileges of guilds and corporations, and the rights 

 of journeymen, which excluded all who had not 

 served apprenticeships, were obstacles to the em- 

 ployment of the agricultural labourers, not to 

 notice that in general they were ill qualified for 

 such occupations. Another cause from which the 

 poor suffered arose from the condition of those 

 landed proprietors whose estates were let at long 

 leases, who found when every article they con- 

 sumed was doubled or tripled in price their in- 

 comes remained unaltered. They were compelled 

 to diminish their establishments, and as the mode 

 least painful was the dismission of their useless 

 or cumbersome domestics, we find constant com- 

 plaints of the numerous serving men who wanted 

 occupation. 



The manufacturers of the period must have been 

 in prosperous circumstances. Every raw material 

 was rising, but still the demand was increasing. 

 What was dear when purchased became still dearer 

 by the operation of the mines, and was felt in the 

 sale of it. In the present day the process of manu- 

 facturing by machinery gives such rapidity to the 

 whole operation, that there is scarcely time for a 



