SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



manufacture spread from this point and was practised at Hatfield before 

 1 8 12. At this work the women and children could earn between them as 

 much as the men. Round Hitchin in 1 817 the result was that the girls 

 were kept from school and knew nothing but how to plait. "^ Cobbett saw 

 the straw-plait on sale at Tring in 1829, but commented on the use of Tuscan 

 straw, when, as he said, English straw was as good.^"'' 



The wonder was that these families could live at all. By the end of 

 the 1 8th century their food supplies were largely drawn from an area outside 

 the county ; groceries and other victuals passed through London even when 

 they came from the north, and the prices were higher than in London. The 

 labourers bought their inferior bacon at the little village chandlers' shops, 

 where even bread was dear.*' The hardship was so great that parish 

 provision stores were suggested.^ At Hinxworth in 1796 pork was 

 \od. a pound and meat 6d., and fully half the family income was spent on 

 bread, flour or oatmeal, and 312'. or 6d. a. week to the baker for heating his 

 oven.*^ At St. Albans the meat prices were much the same and bread 

 I lid. the quartern loaf.'^ In spite of the appearance of great poverty, some 

 saving was possible. At St. Albans there were two friendly societies with 

 about 100 members altogether before 1797.^' At the same time at 

 Redbourn, a rural district, there were three societies.^* 



The conditions of the labourer's life did not change much during the 

 time of high corn prices, except so far as he felt the scarcity almost more 

 than anyone else. Possibly wages may have risen a little under this 

 pressure, for they tended up to 9J. or los. to 12s. a week.^^ From about 

 1820 the prices of food began to fall,'" and, although the farmers suffered, 

 the labourers' wages remained steady, a fact which implies that it was 

 practically a minimum wage relative to the supply of labour and the cost 

 of living, for labour had been fully employed on all the land taken into 

 cultivation. In 1830 at Hitchin people still believed that unemployment 

 was accidental and due to the farmers' lack of capital. ' There is more than 

 sufficient employment if the farmers had capital enough.' " But at Hatfield, 

 at least, the fall in the price of food more than balanced any contraction of 

 the labour market. Moreover, the women earned Ss. to ioj. and the 

 children 3J. to 5J. by their straw-work, which was sold in the open market 

 at St. Albans or to dealers who came round to the cottages.^* Often, too, 

 capitalists gave out the plait as piecework, paid on delivery.*' In addition 

 the rector and the parish authorities of Hatfield encouraged thrift in every 

 way. A Sunday bank started about 1820 had ^Tioo in the first year, and 

 in 1830 £275 from 142 depositors, of whom iii were labourers."" Nearly 

 all the inhabitants of the parish were in benefit societies." At Hertford in 

 1 8 17 even the poorest labourers subscribed to a savings bank."^ There 

 was 3 friendly society at Wheathampstead earlier, in 1812,"' and the now 

 famous Buntingford Society dates from the early part of the century. 



" Poor Law Rep. (1818), 94. <«=' Cobbett, Rural Rides, 23 Sept. 1829. 



^^ Walker, op. cit. ™ Ibid. " Eden, op. cit. iii, 342. 



52 Ibid, ii, 271. M Ibid. M Ibid. 275. 



56, 



Pwriao'i?,?/. (1818), 84; (1831), 276. ""Ibid. 67 Ibid. (183 1), 273 



68 Ibid. 278. «9 Sess. R. (Herts. Co. Rec), ii, 410. 



6" Poor Law Rep. (1831), 276-7. «i Ibid. 278. 



62 Ibid. (1818), 122. «3 Sess. R. (Herts. Co. Rec), ii, 234. 



229 



