FISCAL POLICY AND AGRICULTURE 369 



It is natural to suppose that the rapid lessening of 

 the number of men employed on the soil would tend 

 to increase the wages and improve the position of 

 those who remained. In the preceding pages it is 

 argued from facts that, from causes altogether apart 

 from free imports, the condition of those who mi- 

 grated to the towns was greatly improved. But that 

 improvement did not reach the labourers who remained 

 on the soil to any extent worth considering, and cer- 

 tainly not to be compared with the progress made by 

 operatives in other industries. The statements, in 

 fact, with regard to the increase of wages of the agri- 

 cultural labourers are grossly exaggerated. Mr. Caird 

 (afterwards Sir James Caird), referring to the time 

 when free imports came into operation, states that 

 after a careful inquiry Into the question of wages in 

 thirty-three out of the forty counties in England, "he 

 finds that 9s. 6d. per week will be found the correct 

 average."-^ About ten years afterwards a return, 

 moved for by Mr. Villiers, was presented to the House 

 of Commons. By that return it was shown that 

 labourers' wages ranged from 8s. to 15s. per week 

 generally: in Sussex, lis. to 12s.; Berkshire, 9s. to 

 15s., and in winter 9s. to lis.; Herts, 9s. 6d. to 

 los. 6d. ; Cambridgeshire, los. to 12s. ; Norfolk, los. 

 to IIS.; Wilts and Dorset, 9s. to los. ; Devonshire, 

 8s. to I2S. ; Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Hereford- 

 shire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire, 

 9s. to IIS. ; Yorkshire, 8s. to i6s., etc.'^ 



A few years later (1866) the Earl of Leicester 

 uttered some pregnant words on the subject. After 



1 Caird's "English Agriculture," 1850-1. 



2 For full details see "Average Rate of Weekly Wages of Agricultural 

 Labourers" ''Villiers' Return, ::;o August, i860). 



