The Measure of Value Stated and Illustrated by T. R. (Thomas Robert) Malthus

Author:T. R. (Thomas Robert) Malthus [Malthus, T. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Google: t_pFG8hl4yoC
Publisher: J. Murray
Published: 1823-01-15T02:46:36+00:00

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.

1798 11d. 14d.

1799 12d. 15d.

1800 14d. 16d.

1802 16d. 18d.

1811 18d. 22d.

1812 20d. 24d.

1816 18d. 22d.

1817 16d. 20d.

1819 15d. 18d.

1822 12d. 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

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