Agricultural Wages 89 



labour. No doubt if we compare that 

 period with quite recent times — say the last 

 quarter of a century, and take account of 

 everything that enters into real wages, that 

 opinion might be questioned, but if we 

 measure, as Rogers does, by the amount of 

 necessaries obtainable, especially the amount 

 of wheat, no doubt the fifteenth century 

 stands out prominently as compared with 

 any other century as being advantageous 

 to agricultural labour. 



It is, however, of still greater interest to 

 notice that the economic progress of the 

 agricultural labouring classes was relatively 

 much greater in the mediaeval period than 

 in the modern period from the reign of 

 Elizabeth down to our own times. 



This vast improvement in the mediaeval 

 period again, is, as we shall see, largely 

 due to the action of economic forces — the 

 natural action of these forces being 



