Slaney on Rural Expenditure. 55 



*9th century, two weeks to obtain four bushels, the 

 same quantity of labour could purchase only one-sixth of the 

 produce of his labour, supposing the produce per acre to be 

 stationary at twelve bushels. But, supposing the produce per 

 acre to have increased to twenty-four bushels, while the wages 

 of two weeks were necessary to purchase four bushels, it is 

 plain, that as this would be at the rate of two bushels for one 

 week, the proportion of the produce of his labour gained by 

 the labourer of the 18th or 19th century would be only as 

 one to twenty-four, whereas in the fifteenth century it was as 

 one to three. 



There is still another point of view in which this position 

 may be put, in order to render its truth clearly seen. Two 

 centuries ago, much agricultural labour was spent in raising 

 rye, barley, and other inferior grain, on land which at present 

 produces large crops of excellent wheat. Here, then, is more 

 valuable produce from labour paid at a lower rate than when 

 the produce was less worth. 



It is scarcely necessary to enter on any details, in order to 

 prove that the produce per acre is much increased throughout 

 Great Britain during the last hundred years, that is, during the 

 period that has witnessed a decreasing command of the wages 

 of agricultural labour over the necessaries of life. And it is 

 almost as little necessary to go into details, to prove that the 

 inferior paid labourer of the present day raises by his labour 

 the most valuable kind of grain, from land on which the better 

 paid labourer of the 15th or 16th century worked to produce 

 only rye or barley. 



On these points we shall content ourselves with the follow- 

 ing quotation from one of the three very important and 

 interesting pamphlets recently published, respecting agri- 

 cultural labourers, by the Reverend C. D. Brereton, rector of 

 Little Massingham, Norfolk. 



" Before the Reformation, it is probable that the average pro- 

 duction per acre, of all kinds of grain, did not exceed 12 bushels. 

 From the Reformation to the Revolution husbandry improved, 

 and the produce greatly increased. By modern improvement the 

 production has in many parts been doubled since the Revolu- 

 tion. An augmented production requires of course an increase of 

 manual labour. This village, which contains only 20 cottages, 

 produces, I suppose, 4000 quarters of corn, and the two villages 

 of Great and Little Massingham not less than 10,000 quarters. 



" The quantity of employment has also been greatly increased 

 by the extended growth of wheat in this county. It is generally 

 stated that the expence in manual labour of cultivating and 



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