[528] Thorold Rogers, Work and Wages, c. 18.
[529] Annals of Agriculture, xxxvii. 265. In 1805, in Herefordshire, the labourer was getting about 6s. 6d. a week—See Duncumb, General View of Agriculture of Herefordshire. Those who lived in the farm-house often fared best: in 1808 the diet of a Hampshire farm servant was, for breakfast, bacon, bread, and skim milk; for lunch, bread and cheese and small beer; for dinner, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., pickled pork or bacon with potatoes, cabbages, turnips, or greens, and broths of wheat-flour and garden stuff. Supper consisted of bread and cheese and a pint of ale. His bread was usually made of wheat, which, considering the price, is remarkable. On Sundays he had fresh meat. The farmers lived in many cases little better; a statement which must be compared with others ascribing great extravagance to them.—Vancouver, General View of the Agriculture of Hants (1808), p. 383.
[530] Tooke, History of Prices, i. 236.
[531] Thorold Rogers, Work and Wages, c. 18. In many cases he was getting 15s. and 16s. a week all the year round. The Parliamentary Committee of 1822 put his wages during the war at from 15s. to 16s. a week. Parliamentary Reports Committees, v. 72; but it is difficult to say how much he received as wages, and how much as parish relief. Recruiting for the war helped to raise wages, as did the increased growth of corn.
[532] McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary (1847), p. 438. See Appendix, ii.
[533] Tooke, i. 319, and Pamphleteer, vi. 200 (A. Young). Since 1770, says the latter, labour by 1810-11 had doubled, but meat had risen 146 per cent., cheese 153 per cent., bread 100 per cent. Wages therefore had not risen in proportion to prices.
[534] Inquiry into Agricultural Distress (1822), p. 38.
[535] Thoughts on Present Depressed State of Agricultural Industry (1817), p. 6.
[536] Vancouver, General View of the Agriculture of Devon, p. 357.
[537] See 14 Eliz., c. 11, and 39 Eliz., c. 18.