A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



thatcher's wages in Berkeswich did not rise beyond a penny, though a 

 carpenter could earn 3</." 



By the middle of the fourteenth century in the reign of Edward III 

 wages had risen considerably : a thatcher could earn i\d. to ^d. per day, and 

 other skilled labourers, such as carpenters and masons, rather more. 



By the middle of the fifteenth century another rise may be seen, and from 

 a considerable number of individual accounts the wages of an unskilled 

 labourer may be calculated at 4^. per day, whilst masons, sawyers, and 

 carpenters earned $d. or 6</. 70 The average price of wheat for the whole 

 country from 1260 to 1400 is estimated by Thorold Rogers at 5-r. \Q\d. per 

 quarter; and from 1401 to 1540 one penny more, 71 and in estimating the 

 purchasing power of the wages given above, it is usual to suppose the value 

 of money in the fifteenth century to be twelve times as great as it is at 

 present, 72 and is. per week was an ordinary estimate for the board of a 

 workman. 73 



It is now recognized that the sixteenth century, though marked by 

 glorious national achievements, was a period in which the mass of the people 

 suffered considerably, and the inhabitants of Staffordshire were not exempt 

 from the social distress of the time. The influx of silver from the 

 South American mines (15401600), and the systematic debasing of the 

 currency in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI led to a great rise in 

 prices, and the contemporary documents constantly refer to the dearness of 

 provisions, and especially of corn. Unfortunately for the labourer his wages 

 did not rise in proportion, so that his lot was often very hard at this time. 



The dissolution of the monastic houses, of which there were thirty-six 

 in Staffordshire, 74 meant inevitably, here as elsewhere, serious economic dislo- 

 cation, for with the change of landlords came frequently change in the use to 

 which the land was put, since the growing demand for wool for the expanding 

 cloth industry caused many landowners to inclose for pasture land which had 

 been formerly used for tillage. 75 



The tenants and labourers of the old monastic landowners in Staffordshire 

 must inevitably have suffered by the change, even though there is good reason 

 to suppose that inclosures were not nearly so widespread in this county as in 

 many others. The report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into 

 inclosures in 1517 shows that in this county, where the woollen industry had 

 never been very important, there was no serious grievance. The total number 

 of acres inclosed was slightly under five hundred (48 8 acres). Of these 

 i 1 8 acres were in the hundred of Cuttlestone, of which 85 acres only were 

 for purposes of pasture, and none occurred before 1502. In Pirehill Hundred 

 100 acres had been inclosed, of which 60 were for a park and 40 for pasture, 

 the earliest date of inclosure there being 1486. In Offlow Hundred 80 acres 



69 Mins. Accts. Edw. II, bdle. 1132, No. 7. 70 Mins. Accts. Hen. VI, bdle. 369, No. 6179, &c. 



" See Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 330. 



"Ibid. 539. "Ibid. 329. 



74 Stebbing Shaw, Hist, of Staff, i, 51. 



1 Sir Simon Degge gives us some impressions of the evil results of the monastic dissolution. See, Sir 

 Simon Degge, 'Observations on the Possessors of Monastery Lands in Staffordshire,' printed 1717, in Sampson 

 Erdeswick's Surv. of Staff. He speaks of the ' Sacrilegious purchasers of this Age,' and asserts that the owners 

 become bankrupt and sell, or else die without male issue, whereby their memories perish, and he adds, ' the 

 next thing that hath been a great ruin to the gentry is their living and taking pleasure to spend their estate in 

 London.' 



286 



