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years of great diversity; that is to say, that, when the price of provisions is so high as to make it impossible for the labourer to maintain his family on his ordinary wages, those wages are advanced, though in an inadequate degree; otherwise he would be obliged to seek assistance from the parish;—and the farmer knows, that, whether he pays the advance in the form of wages or of poor-rates, is a matter of comparatively little moment. In like manner, when the price of provisions is unusually low, wages are commonly reduced, because the general redundance of labour in the agricultural districts enables the farmer, in the great majority of instances, to procure hands at the lowest rate of earnings that will afford a bare subsistence. But is there a single agricultural labourer in the country who will affirm that his wages go as far when wheat is at 60s. as when it stands at 40s.? We believe not.
In 1835 and 1836, the prices of all kinds of farming produce were unusually low; and, in the spring of the latter year, a committee of the House of Commons was, of course, appointed to inquire into the causes of the existing agricultural distress. Great numbers of witnesses from all parts of the country were examined, the chief portion of whom were farmers. Of thirty-eight of these, who were particularly questioned as to the comparative condition of the labourer at that time, in order to ascertain whether or not he had benefited, as he ought to have done, by the low price of food, only eight spoke doubtfully, or negatively;—the remaining thirty declared with one consent, that, although wages were unquestionably low, the labourers were in general fully employed, and had never within their memory been in so comfortable a condition, or able to procure so large a supply of the decencies and necessaries of life.[1] A similar committee, which had sat in 1833, at which period also prices were moderate, and produce was abundant, reported to the same effect in the following words:—
"Amidst the numerous difficulties to which agriculture in this country is exposed, and amidst the distress which unhappily exists, it is a consolation to find that the general condition of the agricultural labourer in full employment is better now than at any former period; his money wages giving him a greater command over the necessaries and conveniences of life."
In 1836, when the committee made their report, wheat was under 40s. a quarter. Within three years of this period, the price had reached 73s. or nearly double. Was the labourer as comfortably off in 1839[2] as he had been in 1836? Could he procure any thing like
- ↑ First, Second, and Third Reports of the Committee of 1836, especially p. 353.
- ↑ "The state of prices of provisions, and of the rate of wages in the last two years (1838, 1839) strikingly confirms the deductions from previous experience of the little tendency which exists in wages to follow a fall or rise in the prices of provisions, except at long intervals, and then only in a degree far short of such fall or rise. . . . . In a few instances the wages of agricultural labourers have been raised, but in a very trifling proportion to the rise of necessaries; and in cases where an advance has been granted, it has rather been from motives of fear or humanity on the part of the employer, than as a legitimate consequence of an improved demand relatively to the supply of labour."
Tooke on Prices, III. p. 52.
