SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



quarter, 51. 5'2*/. m a quarter respectively. In the sixteenth century the prices 

 are unfortunately given by the justices for 1586-7,"' in a time of scarcity, 

 when wheat averaged $s. rid', a bushel, or more than eight times its value in 

 the fifteenth century, but at Whaddon in 1584 wheat was 19^. 4*/. m a quarter 

 in an ordinary year. Hence wheat had risen to nearly four times the value, 

 but wages, at the highest, to twice the rate in the preceding century. 

 Barley, which was used for bread in times of dearth, showed the same rise, 

 and the average prices ran from 4*. 57^. U7a and 3*. 4'53</. us a quarter in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but in the sixteenth century it was worth 

 over ioj. U8 a quarter, and in 1586 7"' reached an average value of 22s. 8d. a 

 quarter. 



It is interesting to note that this rise did not take place early in the six- 

 teenth century, for at Wing U8 between 1531 and 1539 barley varied from 

 3-r. nd, to 5-f. a quarter. 



The price of wheat was so high that barley largely replaced it in 

 common use, and early in the seventeenth century the justices reported that 

 barley was dear, since it was ' the common feed of the poore."* 



The restrictions on the freedom of all workmen under the Tudors are 

 important in their bearing on their prosperity, since they must have placed 

 them at a great disadvantage in endeavouring to obtain better wages. A 

 workman could not travel about the country without a passport, which he 

 was only certain of receiving when he had already obtained work elsewhere. 160 

 The object of these restrictions was to ensure a steady supply of agricultural 

 labour and prevent men emigrating in great numbers to places where some 

 trade was especially flourishing. The fluctuations in the larger trades made 

 this to some extent a reasonable precaution. In I562 1 " there had been 

 appointed by the justices in every town in the three Chiltern Hundreds a 

 governor of labourers, and probably the same course had been followed else- 

 where. His duties were to present masters who gave too high a rate of 

 wages, and to control the comings and goings of all labourers. Without his 

 consent a man might not leave his town to work elsewhere, nor could any- 

 one apprentice his son to a trade unless he owned a freehold of 2OJ. value 

 a year, but the governor was to insist on the boy becoming a servant in 

 husbandry. When there was a scarcity of labour in harvest time the governor 

 was to apportion the men to different masters without partiality, and to compel 

 all journeymen and apprentices, if it was necessary, to work in harvest time 

 at the ordinary rate of wages. Again, no labourers might move from one 

 house to another or leave the hundred without giving a good reason to the 

 nearest justice and obtaining his leave. 



Restrictions were also placed on the clothes of the agricultural labourers 

 and servants. The cloth worn by them was to be of * mean and low parts,' 



"* Average only obtained from two manors, but the price of corn does not seem to have varied greatly in 

 different parts of the county. 



* S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 199, No. 43. 



"' Thorold Rogers, Hist, of A grit, and Prices, vol. ti. 



1Ma Average taken from entries in Mins. Accts. for reigns of Edward III and Richard II. 



" Wing, Churchwardens' Accts. ; Thorold Rogers, op. cit. 



'* S.P. Dom. Jas. I, vol. 140, No. 19. The rise in prices was due partly to the influx of silver into 

 Europe after the discovery of the Mexican silver mines, and partly to the debasement of the coinage by 

 Henry VIII and Edward VI. 



164 This restriction was first made in a statute of 1388. " S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 9, No. 43. 



69 



