WAGES. 



faft, dinner, or drinkinfj, which (hall not exceed two hours 

 and an half in a day, that is to fay, at every drinking, one 

 half hour, for his dinner one hour, and for his fleep, when 

 he is allowed to fleep, that is, from the midft of May to the 

 midft of Auguft, half an hour at the moft, and at every 

 breakfaft one half hour : ) and all the artificers and labourers 

 between the midft of September and the midil of March 

 (hall be and continue at their work, from the fpring of the 

 day in the morning until night, except it be in the time 

 before appointed for breakfail and dinner; on pain to forfeit 

 id. for every hour's abfence, to be dedufted out of their 

 wages. 



And every artificer and labourer lawfully retained in 

 building or repairing any church, houfe, (hip, mill, or other 

 piece of work taken in great, in tafk, or in grofs, or who 

 ihall take upon him to make or finilli any fuch thing or 

 work, ihall continue and not depart therefrom ( unlefs for 

 non-payment of the wages or hire agreed on, or appointed 

 to ferve the king, or other lawful caufe, or without licenfe 

 from the mafter or owner of the work, or of him that hath 

 the charge thereof,) before the finifhing thereof, on pain of 

 imprifonment by one month, without bail, and forfeiture of 

 5/. to the party from whom he fliall fo depart, recoverable 

 by aftion of debt in any court of record ; befides fuch 

 ordinary cofts and damages as may be recovered by the 

 common laws for any fuch offence. 



We fhall here obferve, that the firft ftatute, regulating the 

 wages of labour in England, paffed in the reign of Ed- 

 ward III. ; and in the fame year ^ 1351 ) the earlieft law in 

 Spain on the fame fubjeft was publilhed by Peter the Cruel. 

 At an earlier period, labourers were ferfs, and confequently 

 no laws were required to regulate their wages. The imme- 

 diate caufe of the laws paffed in both countries, in the middle 

 of the 14th century, was the plague which laid wafte 

 Europe from 1347 to 1349, and carried off a great portion 

 of its inhabitants. The confequence of this devaftation was 

 a fcarcity of labourers, and a rife in the price of labour ; 

 which alarmed the employers of labourers both in Spain and 

 in England, and induced them, in their legidative capacity, 

 to enaCl laws, which reduced the price of labour to its 

 former ftandard, and impofed heavy penalties on all who 

 gave or accepted more. A few years probably reftored 

 Europe to its former population, and rendered thefe laws 

 fuperfluous ; but they ferved as examples to future times, 

 and encouraged governments to interfere and regulate the 

 wages of their fubjetls. In England, the flatute of 

 labourers was frequently renewed, with fuch alterations as 

 the change of circumftances required ; and, by an equitable 

 provifion, the juftices of every county were empowered, by 

 the ftatute 13 Richard II. c. 8. to meet once a year between 

 Eafter and Michaelmas ; and after taking into confideration 

 the price of provifions, to regulate, by proclamation, the 

 wages that fhould be received in the enfuing year. But 

 though this power was confirmed to the juftices by the 

 ftatute 5 Eliz. c. 4. they feem to have exercifed it fparingly ; 

 and, when they aded, to have been guided by a fteady bias 

 in favour of the mafters. 



By the ftatute 1 1 Henry VII. c. 22. a common labourer 

 was allowed 4^. a day, without diet, from Eafter to 

 Michaelmas. In the 35th of Elizabeth the juftices in the 

 Eaft Riding of Yorkfhire, determined that the wages of the 

 common labourer, without meat or drink, fhould be limited 

 to ^d. a day, from the ift of March to the feaft of All 

 Saints. At the former period, a labourer who had ^d. a 

 day could earn a quarter of wheat (at 6^. ^d. its price) by 

 20 days labour, a quarter of rye (at 4J. ) by 12 days labour, 

 and a quarter of barley (at 3;. ) by 9 days labour. At the 



latter period, or in tlie latter part of the reign of queea 

 Elizabeth, a common labourer could not earn a quarter of 

 wheat (at 20s.) by lefs than 48 days labour, nor a quarter 

 of rye (at 13J. 4^/. ) in lefs than 32 days, nor a quarter of 

 barley (at 12s.) in lefs than 28^ days. In other words, a 

 common labourer could earn a greater quantity of wheat 

 in 1495, than he could of barley in 1593. If, therefore, 

 barley was his common fuftenance, he could earn more thaa 

 three times as much in 1495 as in 1593 ; if r)e, 2| as 

 much ; atid if wheat, 2,;. Confequently, as far as the 

 neceffaries of life are concerned, the fituation of the labourer 

 was not one-half fo advantageous in 1593 as it had been in 

 1495. In the interval, America had been difcovered, the 

 precious metals depreciated throughout Europe, and the 

 currency of England deteriorated by the operations of the 

 government. 



A change in the value of money, limilar to what happened 

 in the i6th centur)', has taken place m our own times. The 

 precious metals have been depreciated throughout Europe, 

 in confequence of the increafed produftivenefs of the Ame- 

 rican mines during the laft 40 years ; and in our own country, 

 the rife of prices, which this neceffarily produced, has been 

 aggravated by a depreciation of our currency, occafioned by 

 the exceffive iffue of paper not convertible into fpecie. 

 What have been the confequences ? The price of labour 

 has not rifen in proportion to the rife of commodities. 

 But the labourer has the difference made up to him in the 

 fliape of poor's rate. An unmarried man can ftill fupport 

 himfelf by his nominal wages. But a married man, who has 

 two children to maintain, receives as a matter of courfe 

 affiftance from his parifh. A calculation is made of his 

 wages, and of the price of bread. So much bread is allowed 

 to him, according to the number of his family. What his 

 wages will not furnifh, the parifh provides. This beneficent 

 fyllem, as it has been called, turns out to be an engine in 

 the hands of mafters, to keep wages as low as will fuffice for 

 the maintenance of the labourer and his wife, with a provi- 

 fion in the fhape of charity for the fupport of his children. 

 It cannot be doubted, that if fuch a provifion had never 

 exifted, the wages of the labourer would have been higher — 

 that what he now receives as charity, he would then have 

 received as his own — and that the operation of this fcheme 

 of benevolence is to increafe the gains of the rich, and to 

 deprive the poor of that fhare in the good things of this 

 hfe, which the provifions of nature, and their own induftry, 

 might otherwife have given them. In thus keeping down 

 the wages of labour, the poor-laws have accomplilhed, under 

 the mafk of charity, what the old ftatute of labourers had 

 vainly attempted by the infliftion of pains and penalties. 



Wages, in /tgriculturc, a term employed to fignify the 

 price or hire which is paid to fervants or labourers for the 

 performance of different kinds of farm-work. It is noticed 

 in the Report on the Agriculture of the County of Peebles, 

 in Scotland, that the demand for labour, as for every other 

 marketable article, neceffarily varies according to circum- 

 ftances ; and that the price muft, of neceffity, be regulated 

 by the proportion between the exifting quantity of the 

 article and the demand. That where capital, and profitable 

 employment for capital, abound in proportion to the popu- 

 lation, the demand for, and confequent reward of labour, 

 will neceffarily rife to the higheft rate ; but that the reverfe 

 muft as neceffarily enfue upon the oppofite fuppofition. 

 That if, in the former cafe, it fhould be attempted to lower 

 the wages of labour below what the demand can afford, the 

 competition of employers, poffeffed of capital, would lead 

 them to break through, or evade, all fuch regulationa. If, 

 in the latter cafe, it fhould be attempted to raife v^ages 



aboTc 



