In no one particular does the contrast between the present times and those of which we are treating appear more marked, or the progress of society more decided, than in the interference of the ruling powers of olden times with various descriptions of trades and occupations. There were the assizes or ordinances regulating the price of bread, ale, fuel, and other common necessaries of life; they clipped or expanded servants' and workmen's wages; prohibited or encouraged by bounties the growth of various articles of consumption; adjusted carriers' charges and the numbers of horses they might use up certain hills; permitted the sale of many things only by license; and otherwise sadly dammed up the current of human progression within their own narrow channel. As regards servants' wages, it would appear that the scale allowed early in the seventeenth century was far from illiberal, for in the year 1613 the authorities of Broadway petitioned "that servants' wages be rated according to the statute in that case, for we find it a great grievance in this county the unreasonableness of servants' wages, so that they have grown proud and idle." The rates for wages for servants and labourers fixed in 1663 were as follows:
In 1731 it was ordered "that printed advertisements be publicly sett upp in all publick places that the wages and rates of servants and labourers be the same as last year, except masons, who are allowed 14d. a day."
The corn trade was an object of special attention. An instance of the great want of agricultural statistics occurs in the year 1631, when the subjoined imperious missive was received by the Worcestershire magistrates from the government officials at Whitehall. This document will probably be considered confirmatory of the experience derived from history—namely, that whether a state undertakes to buy for the people what they may want for their consumption, or regulates the trade by interfering with the supply, it is immaterial as to the result. In either case the people may expect to be starved whenever corn is scarce:
"We cannot but very greatly merveile (marvel) that notwithstanding his Majesty's proclamation and book of orders and the diverse earnest letters of this Board, the price of corne and other graine is risen so high, and the same sold at such excessive rates in many places; neyther can wee conceave how this can be if the directions sent from hence had been duly executed; you are therfore to take notice that wee expect a more careful performance thereof and a more particular account then hath hitherto been given us, and accordingly wee do hereby, in his Majesty's name, expressly charge you to cause presently a diligent and exact survey to be made through all that county, what provisions of graine there is, and to returne to this Board a certificate thereof with all expedition, and likewise to see the markets well served according to the orders, and not forestalled by greedy engrossers, to the intollerable wrong and prejudice of those that are to buy, especially of the poorer sort. You are likewise to use your best care and endeavour that during the continuance of this present dearth the maltsters be not permitted to make any greater quantities of malt than may be sufficient for necessary use; that soe there may be more plenty of barley for the reliefe of the poore; and soe wee bid you hartily farewell.
| (Signed by) | "LONDON. | "H. MANCHESTER. |
| "DORCHESTER. | "DANLEY. | |
| "EXETER. | "E. NEWBURGH. | |
| "LINDSEY. | "J. FALKLAND. | |
| "THO. COVENTRY. | "T. COKE." |
In 1715 it was ordered "that Richard Carwardine, of Castle Morton, have a licence to be a comon badger of corne for one year;" and in 1732, "that Thomas Wadley, of Hanley Castle, have a licence granted him to be a common badger, buyer, seller, and carrier, of all sorts of corn and grain in any fair or market within this kingdom of England, so that the same continue in force but for one year from the date hereof and no longer." These badgers of corn were persons who bought corn to sell again. By the statute 5th Elizabeth, chap. 12, they were compelled to take out an annual licence from the Quarter Sessions. At the present time, persons who go round to the farms and cottages in the neighbourhood of Monmouth to buy poultry and bring it for sale to the market at Monmouth are called "badgers."
In pursuance of an act passed in 1769, weekly returns of the prices of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and beans, were ordered from Bewdley, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Dudley, and Bromsgrove; and the following persons were instructed to furnish such returns: Timothy Clare, stationer, Bewdley; John Fawcett, weaver, Kidderminster; Robert West, stationer, Stourbridge; Oliver Dixon, mercer, Dudley; and George Wall, skinner, Bromsgrove.
Towards the close of the same century many convictions took place "for selling loaves of bread without imprinting on them the letter W in Roman capital, the said loaves not being rasped either before or after the bespeaking or purchasing thereof, against the form of the statute." Ordered (in 1710) "that Wm. Dimock, of Bishampton, have a licence for a comon higler, lader, kedder, carrier, buyer, and seller, of hens, chickens, capons, eggs, butter, cheese, ffish, and all other dead vittualls, except pheasants, hares, and partridges." The Clerk of the Peace was instructed in 1730 "to give notice by public advertisement in the Worcester newspaper for all carriers in the said county to attend this Court at the adjourned Sessions, in order to settle the price of carriages, according to the form of the statute in that case made and provided." It was likewise ordered "that no common waggoner or carrier shall take for carrying any goods to or from Bewdley to London the sum of more than 7s. per cwt. till further order." And in 1752, "that every waggon or other carriage drawn up from the signe of the White Hart, Broadway, to the top of the hill, so far as in the county of Worcester, may be drawn with ten horses if the owner shall think proper." Ditto, up the Malvern Hill, with seven. Tolerably suggestive this of queer roads and stiff gradients. The rates of carriage to be charged by carriers were fixed by the Quarter Sessions under the statute 3rd William and Mary, chap. 12, sec. 24, and the number of horses by which carts and waggons were to be drawn was regulated by the statute 5th George I, chap. 12.