CHAPTER XLIII. 

 PRIVILEGES DYING OUT. 



IT will have been inferred from what was stated in the 

 previous chapter as to the decline in the custom of giving 

 cider in addition to cash wages, that the tendency was 

 in the direction of absolute discontinuance of the custom. 

 Such customs, however, usually die rather slowly ; and 

 it may be that part of the reason for the slowness of the 

 departure of the cider truck system was the indisposi- 

 tion of farmers to add to their cash outlay for wages. 

 Cheaply produced cider really costs the farmer less than 

 its estimated " value " as part of wages. So long as it 

 could be made to count as part payment at more than 

 its actual worth, so long was there an interest a 

 pecuniary interest in maintaining a most undesirable 

 system ; and it would disappear much more rapidly, no 

 doubt, if it could be abolished without compensation. 



But at the period under review, 1880, there was 

 indication of a general tendency to do away with all 

 allowances " in kind," including the grist corn system, 

 and even free cottages. Our inquiries in Wiltshire 

 disclosed the fact that money wages had increased at 

 the expense, so to speak, of " privileges " generally. 

 Clothing and coal clubs still went on in places, and the 

 donations towards them of the charitably disposed 

 continued ; but those donations, although benefits, 

 were not " privileges " in the sense of this chapter 

 that is, were not gifts by the farmers in addition to 



wages. 



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