Notes and Queries, Number 15, February 9, 1850

Running my eye accidentally through the household book of Sir Roger Twysden, from 1659 to 1670, it occurred to me to make a comparison between the relative prices of meat and wages, as there given, in order to ascertain the position of our peasantry in these parts, at the close of the 17th century. I send you a few extracts, by which it will be seen that, in Kent, at least, our agricultural labourers appear to have been in far better condition than those of the rest of England, who, in Mr. Macaulay’s brilliant work, are represented as living “almost entirely on rye, barley, and oats,” owing to the exorbitantly high price of meat, as compared with the ordinary scale of wages.
As to meat, I find the following entries:—
“1659. Beef 2 s . and 1 s . 8 d . per stone. a loin of mutton 1 s . 6 d . 1662. Beef 2 s . per stone. a shin of beef 1 s . 10 d . a loin of veal 3 s . 4 d . a calve’s head 1 s . 2 d . a quarter of mutton 4 s . 4 d . and 5 s . a side of mutton 9 s . 1664. 8 quarters of mutton 32 s . 1 quarter of do. 4 s . 6 stone of beef 10 s . 4 d . 1666. 6 stone of beef 10 s . 4 d . a fat weather - 12 s . 8 d . 32 fat weathers 19 l . 1667. 10 stone of beef and 2 lb. of suet 18 s . 22 stone of beef 2 l . 23 stone of beef 2 l . 3 s . a chine and a quarter of veal 8 s . 1670. A chine and a quarter of mutton 5 s . a quarter of lamb 2 s . 6 d .”
Through this period we have:—
“Cheese per load, i.e . 56 lb., at 14 s ., 11 s ., 10 s ., 4 d ., 9 s . 6 d .”
The wages of labourers through the same period are entered:—
“Sawyer 2 s . 6 d . per hundred. a farm carpenter 1 s . 6 d . per day. or, ‘I finding him,’ 1 s . per day. common labourers, generally 1 s . per day; sometimes, but less frequently, 9 d . per day } in 1849, 2 s . threshing wheat, 16 d . per quarter in 1849, 3 s . mowing, from 1 s . to 1 s . 8 d . per acre in 1849, 3 s . 6 d . mowing oats, 1 s . 3 d . per acre in 1849, 2 s . 6 d . mowing clover, 1 s . 6 d . per acre in 1849, 2 s . 6 d . hayers, 2 s . and 2 s . 6 d . per week in 1849, 6 s . reaping, 2 s . per acre in 1849, 10 s . to 14 s . sheep shearing, 1 s . per score in 1849, 2 s . 6 d . hedging 2-1/2 d . per rod in 1849, 4 d . hoeing, 6 d . per acre in 1849, 4 s . women 8 d . per day in 1849, 1 s ., and 1 s . 4 d . boys, 4 d . per day in 1849, 6 d . and 3 d . making faggots, 18 d . and 20 d . per hundred; in 1849, 3 s .”