In attempting to measure the rise in the value of the currency since the period of the high prices, we shall be greatly assisted by the following very valuable document respecting the price of labour in the county or stewartry of Kircudbright. It is considered that the prices in this table represent pretty nearly (though they are rather below) the wages in other parts of Scotland. The labourers have no other allowances whatever except the daily wages specified in the table. In the intermediate years not quoted the wages remained stationary at the rates last mentioned; and when any change took place, the period of such change and the degree of it are regularly stated.

Years.Rate per day
in winter.		Rate per day
in summer.
1760 4d. 6d.
1765 6d. 8d.
1770 8d.10d.
1772 8d.12d.
1776 7d. 9d.
1780 8d.10d.
1791 8d.11d.
1793 9d.12d.
179811d.14d.
179912d.15d.
180014d.16d.
180216d.18d.
181118d.22d.
181220d.24d.
181618d.22d.
181716d.20d.
181915d.18d.
182212d.15d.

In 1812, farm servants boarded in the house received from 14l. to 22l. a year; women servants from 5l. to 8l. At present, (April, 1823,) men receive from 10l. to 14l., and women from 3l. 10s. to 6l.

Masons’ wages per day were three shillings in 1812, and are now half-a-crown.

All work done by the piece, such as building stone fences, cutting ditches either for fences or drains, making roads, &c. may be done at a greater reduction of price than the fall in the rate of labour by the day. Work is now performed more frequently by the piece; and the best labourers are employed by the day; while the inferior workmen, and those unable from age, or other causes, to perform a full day’s work, are turned over to work by the piece. Agricultural affairs are under such depression, that the work is curtailed, and the competition for work is thereby increased.[W]

The first thing that strikes us in the table is the very remarkable rise of labour in Scotland from 1760—much greater than in England, and much greater than in proportion to the rise in the price of corn. This was no doubt owing in part to the comparatively unimproved state of the district in question, and of Scotland in general at the earliest period adverted to. But to go no farther back than 1790, the period with which we commenced in England, it appears that the rise from 1790 to 1811, was considerably greater than in England, and nearly in proportion to the rise in the price of wheat. If, indeed, we take the price of labour as mentioned in the table for 1812, and compare it with the average price of wheat for the four years from 1812 to 1815 inclusive, during which period the same price of labour seems to have continued, it will appear, that labour, taking summer and winter wages together, rose in the proportion of from 19s. to 44s., while wheat rose from 43s. in 1792, (according to the average of England and Wales, which commences with that year,) to 88s. and therefore labour rose decidedly more than wheat, except in reference to the peculiarly high price of wheat in 1812.

Taking the currency price of labour in Scotland as having risen from 9½d. to 22d., and reducing the 22d. to its value in bullion, the average price of bullion in that year being 5l. 1s., it will appear, that the bullion price of labour in Scotland rose, in the interval between 1790 and 1812, from 9½d. to 16½d., or nearly 73 per cent. And consequently, the same quantity of gold for which it would have been necessary to give commodities worth 173 days labour in 1790, might be purchased for 100 days labour in 1812; or the value of the currency estimated in gold might be considered as having fallen in that proportion.

In 1812, the bullion price of labour as above stated was 16½d.; it has since fallen to 13½d., or in the proportion of from 100 to 81·8—rather more than 18 per cent. This view of it shows most clearly the change in the bullion value of the currency since 1812. But if we wish to estimate the whole fall which has taken place in the currency, and then subtract what is due to the difference between paper and gold, it will appear that the whole fall since 1812, estimated on the currency wages of 1812, has been rather less than 39 per cent.; of which, if the average difference between paper and gold in the year 1812 was as 101 to 78, about 23 per cent. would belong to the paper, leaving about 16 per cent. for the fall in the currency independently of the excess of paper prices above gold prices. The apparent difference in the results of these estimates arises merely from the per centage in the latter case being taken on a higher number.

I stated before, that I was not aware of any data on which reliance could be placed respecting the amount of the fall of agricultural wages in England since the termination of the war; but on the supposition that the wages, which in 1810 and 1811 were 14s. 6d. per week, had fallen to 10s. then as the bullion wages of 1810 and 1811 were a little above 12s., the fall in the bullion value of the currency would be nearly 17 per cent., or for the same quantity of gold which in 1810 and 1811 might be purchased by commodities worth 83 days labour, it would now be necessary to give commodities the natural value of which would be represented by 100 days labour. This difference of course includes the effects which have been attributed to the purchases of bullion by the Bank with a view to a return to cash payments, the amount of which separately it is scarcely possible to calculate; but I am inclined to agree with Mr. Tooke in thinking that it is not above one or two per cent. If the price of agricultural labour in England has not fallen so much as is here supposed, the difference in the value of the currency will not be so great as above stated, but on any supposition which is at all probable, it must be something considerable.

It is certain therefore that the currency, estimated in what appears to be a correct standard of value, has fallen in such a degree beyond the difference between paper and gold, as to add much to the pressure upon the landed interest, though by no means to the extent which would be implied by measuring the value of the currency in agricultural produce. This produce, from the scantiness of the supply compared with the demand, was at one time much above its natural and ordinary value, and has since, from the abundance of the supply compared with the demand, been as much below its natural value; while the value of the currency, though it has fallen and risen considerably, has been much more steady than the value of corn.