THE POTATO 107 



in many parts it was the staple article of food for the poor ; 

 in Somerset the children mainly subsisted on it, and in Devon 

 it was made into bread. Its cultivation on a large scale in 

 the field did not, however, spread all over England till the 

 Napoleonic war, and the ignorance and prejudice against it 

 lasted for long ; even Cobbett called it ' the lazy root ', and 

 whole potatoes were used for seed regardless of the number 

 of eyes.v^ 



Iri 1563 was passed the famous Act, 5 Eliz., c. 4, which 

 Thorold Rogers has asserted to be the commencement of 

 a conspiracy for cheating the English workman of his wages, 

 to tie him to the soil, to deprive him of hope, and to 

 degrade him into irremediable poverty.^ The violence of 

 this language is a prima facie reason for doubting the correct- 

 ness of his assertion, which on examination is found to be 

 grossly exaggerated. Under Richard II the justices were 

 authorized to fix the rate of wages, provided they did not 

 exceed the maximum fixed by Parliament. The Elizabethan 

 statute abolished the maximum and left the justices to fix 

 reasonable rates. So far from being an attempt to keep wages 

 down it seems to have been an honest effort to regulate them 

 according to prices,^ whereas most previous statutes had merely 

 reduced wages. The preamble of the Act states this clearly 

 enough, saying that the existing laws with regard to the 

 hiring and wages of servants were insufficient, chiefly because 

 the wages ' are in dyvers places to small and not answerable 

 to this time respecting the advancement of prices in all 

 things that belong to the said servants and labourers, the 

 said lawes cannot conveniently without the great greefe and 

 burden of the* poore labourer and hired man be put in due 

 execution'. But as several of these Acts were still beneficial 

 it was proposed to consolidate them into one statute in order 

 to banish idleness, advance husbandry, and give the labourer 

 decent wages. It was enacted therefore that all persons 



' Six Centuries of Work and Wages, p. 398. 



^ Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, ii. 38. The Statute of Labourers 

 of 1351 made the same effort, see p. 43. 



