120 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



the carpenter are in general fairly repre- 

 sentative of most ordinary skilled labour, 

 e.g.^ the mason, the tiler, the sawyer, the 

 plumber, the bricklayer, etc. But as soon 

 as we turn to agriculture there is a 

 difference, and generally a great difference. 

 Time will not permit of my giving the 

 results of the inquiry in detail, but one or 

 two instances may be taken. In England, 

 in the century before the Black Death, the 

 wages of the carpenter were at least 50 

 per cent., and probably nearer 100 per cent., 

 higher than those of the first-class hand in 

 agriculture. 



In the fifty years after the Black Death, 

 when all wages rose, practically the same 

 proportions remained : the carpenter re* 

 ceived double, or at least half as much 

 again as the agriculturalist. Down to the 

 middle of the seventeenth century the same 

 proportions on the average hold good, and 



