A bailiff’s yearly wages, with diet, were to be not more
    than L1 6s. 8d., and 5s. for clothes.

  A chief hind, carter, or chief shepherd, with diet, not more
    than L1, and 5s. for clothes.

  A common servant or labourer, with diet, not more than
    16s. 8d., and 4s. for clothes.

  A woman servant, with diet, not more than 10s., and 4s.
    for clothes.

By the day, except in harvest, a common labourer from Easter to Michaelmas was to have 2d. with food and drink, 4d. without; and from Michaelmas to Easter 1-1/2d. with food and drink, and 3d. without.  In harvest:—­

  A mower, with food, 4d. a day; without, 6d. 
  A reaper, with food, 3d. a day; without, 5d. 
  A carter, with food, 3d.; without, 5d. 
  Other labourers, with food, 2-1/2d.; without, 4-1/2d. 
  Women, with food, 2-1/2d.; without, 4-1/2d.

FOOTNOTES: 

[205] Booke of Husbandry (ed. 1568), fol. 5.  The surveyor of Fitzherbert’s day combined some of the duties of the modern bailiff and land agent:  he bought and sold for his employer, valued his property, and supervised the rents.

[206] Booke of Husbandry (ed. 1568), fol. vi.

[207] Ibid. fol. xv.

[208] Booke of Husbandry (ed. 1568), fol. xxix.

[209] Fitzherbert adds pigs and all manner of cornes, so altogether the farmer’s wife seems to have done as much as the farmer.

[210] Sir Jas. E. Smith, English Flora, iv. 241.

[211] History of Kent (ed. 1778), i. 123.

[212] Description of Britain (Furnivall ed.), p. 325.

[213] Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, iii. 254.

[214] See above.

CHAPTER IX

1540-1600

PROGRESS AT LAST.—­HOP-GROWING.—­PROGRESS OF ENCLOSURE.—­HARRISON’S
‘DESCRIPTION’

The period we have now reached was one of steady growth in the value of land and its products.  In 1543 Henry VIII, who had given away or squandered, in addition to the great treasure left him by his thrifty father, all the wealth obtained from the dissolution of the monasteries, debased the coinage in order to get more money into his insatiable hands, and prices went up in consequence.  But there were other causes:  the influx of precious metals from newly discovered America into Europe had commenced to make itself felt, and the population of the country began to grow steadily.  Also, it must not be forgotten that the seasons, which in the early part of the century had been normal, were for the next sixty years frequently rainy and bad.  It is unnecessary to say that this must have largely helped to raise the price of corn.  The average price of wheat from 1540-1583 was 13s. 10-1/2d. a quarter; from 1583-1702, 39s. 0-1/2d.