88 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



curate estimate of the aims of the statutes in regard to 

 the level of wages and prices will be possible only as a 

 result of a detailed comparison, district by district, of the 

 statutory rates with those prevailing before and after the 

 cataclysm, bearing in mind that for wages the statutory 

 rates were maximum, — where less was usual, less w^as to 

 be paid,' while for prices the rate was to be " reason- 

 able."^ Since the money rate per se has little signifi- 

 cance, such a comparison must include statements as to 

 the relative purchasing power of the various rates of 

 wages. Rogers' figures,^ the best that are in print, 

 apply largely to the south and east of England,"* and in 

 view of the wide variation between rates in different 

 localities are useless for other parts of the country. 

 Moreover, since the publication of Rogers' tables, the 

 continuous investigation of manuscript sources, the issue 

 of successive official calendars and lists, ^ and the in- 

 creased printing of records,'' have all helped to show the 

 abundance of material from which statistics can be de- 

 rived. 



Of the sources that 1 have examined, the most useful 

 for this purpose are the sessional records themselves and 

 the accounts of penalties ; ^ but, within the limits of my 

 work for this monograph, it has been impossible to make 

 an exhaustive study of the rates there recorded. Further, 

 full as are these two classes of documents of instances of 



'App., 13. ''App.. 10. 



^ Hist, of Prices already frequently quoted. 



''Wiebe, Zur Ceschichte der Preisr evolution, 30-31. 



'App., 4. 



* C/. e. g., such a book as Miss Davenport's Norfolk Manor. 



' Exceedingly valuable also are the counts in the actions brought in 

 the upper courts; cf. pt. ii, ch. ii, s. 3, and also the presentments in the 

 court of king's bench recorded in Ancient Indictments; cf. app. F, i. 



