SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



or early fourteenth century, the allowance being very much the same in 

 amount as at Spettisbury.*^ 



But in addition to these regularly employed servants on the Dorset 

 manors, a large amount of day labour was required, both for harvest work, 

 such as threshing, mowing, reaping, and tossing, and for repairs about the 

 farm buildings and houses. Upon these occasions a carpenter usually 

 received id. a day, though for elaborate building works, such as the repairs 

 of Corfe Castle in 1 280-1, as much as dd. might be paid,*^ while work could 

 be found for less skilled workmen who only received z\dy' A thatcher 

 {coopterius) as a rule received 3^. a day between himself and his boy, though oc- 

 casionally an extra \d. or \d. was allowed for the lad." Mowing was paid at 

 5(/. or 51^. an acre, and tossing at '2.\d. or 3^. the day.*' In 1282 a sawyer at 

 Corfe received ^d. a day, an unskilled labourer carrying stones, &c., id. or 

 21^., and a woman making mortar \d. ; the overseers of the works themselves 

 only received \s. a week each.*^ These wages were apparently in addition to 

 food, for when the carpenters and sawyers were employed in the woods, Ralph 

 received \d. for going to the wood with fish and a pennyworth of bread.*' 



It is difficult to form any very clear idea of prices in Dorset at this 

 period. At Wyke in 1327 — apparently a year of plenty — wheat was 

 sold at \s. the quarter, barley at 5^. the bushel, pulse at 6^., vetch at 6^., 

 and oats at 4^^.;*^ and in 1321— 2 wheat was at (^d. a bushel, barley at 6^., and 

 oats at \d. the bushel.'" The following year, however, wheat rose to about 

 I OJ-. the quarter and barley was bought for yj. \d. or even 8j. 'id. the quarter ; 

 while at Cranborne in 1325-6 the price of wheat was but little less," though 

 other kinds of grain had fallen considerably. In 1325—6 cheese was sold at 

 I5J-. the wey, and butter at %d. the stone," and in 1327 the reeve of 

 Steeple sold a rennet cheese for ioj., and other cheese at \\s. lod. the 

 wey, and received is. the stone for butter." Of the live-stock on a Dorset 

 farm at this period oxen were the most expensive, ranging from 6^. to 

 i8j. bd. each, but usually being sold for over loj." ; cows were worth from 

 3 J-, to 5 J-., sheep about lod. or is. or even is. ^d. a head, hoggerels %d., and 

 lambs bd. ; pigs varied from 6s. to 2^., and geese from 2d. to 4^. each." 



All this would seem to imply a rather low economic standard in Dorset 

 up to about the middle of the fourteenth century. There can, moreover, be 



" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, No. 1. 



" Ibid. bdle. 834, No. 26 ; bdle. 833, No. 16 ; Exch. Accts. Works, bdle. 460, No. 27. 



" Exch. Accts. Works, bdle. 460, No. 27. 



" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, Nos. I, 5 ; 832, Nos. 3, 26, 28 ; 834, No. 28. 



"^ Ibid. bdle. 832, Nos. 3, 28 ; 833, No. 4 ; 834, No. 28 (mowing) ; 832, No. 26 ; and 833, No. 5 

 (tossing). 



" Exch. Accts. Works, bdle. 460, No. 27. " Ibid. 



" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 834, No. 28. 



'"Ibid. bdle. 832, No. 26. 



" Wheat, 8/. ?,ii. and 9/. ^J. the quarter ; barley, 4/. and 4/. \d. the quarter ; pulse, vetch, and 

 dragget, 40/. the quarter (pulse at midsummer, 6s. 8a'.) ; oats, is. 6d. the quarter ; Mins. Accts (Gen. Ser.), 

 bdle. 832, No. 3. 



" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 3 ; Assize R. 206, m. 20, values cheeses at Ss. 'per pond'— 

 eight cheeses making one ' pond.' 



" Ibid, bdle 833, No. 5. 



" Ibid. (Duchy of Lane), No. 1 125, and (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, No. 17, &c. 



" Ibid. No. 5 ; ibid. (Duchy of Lane), No. 1 125, and (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 3 ; bdle. 834, 

 No. 28 ; bdle. 833, Nos. I, 5. The fact that the customary allowance for the workers in the harvest field 

 at Wyke was two bushels of corn or l6i/., one sheep or 12/, and one cheese or 5<2'., would seem to point to 

 these as being average prices about the year 1314 (Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, file 43, No. 26). 



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