LIVE STOCK—FLAX—SAFFRON— THE POTATO pps

According to Gerard, the old English botanist, it was, on its first introduction from America, only cultivated in the gardens of the nobility and gentry as a curious exotic; and in 1606

LIVE STOCK—FLAX—SAFFRON—

THE POTATO

The cattle and sheep of this period have generally been described as poor animals, and no doubt they would seem small to us To Jacob Rathgib, a traveller, writing in

1592, they seemed worthy of praise: 'England has beautiful oxen and cows, with very large horns, low and heavy and for the most part black; there is abundance of sheep and wethers, which graze by themselves winter and summer without shepherds.' The heaviest wethers, according to him, weighed 60 lb and had at the most 6 lb of wool, a much heavier fleece than is generally ascribed to them; others had 4 or 5 lb Horses were abundant, and, though low and small, were very fleet; the riding horses being geldings and generally excellent Immense numbers of swine were in the country, 'larger than in any other.' Six years later another traveller, Hentzner, noticed that the soil abounded with cattle, and the inhabitants were more inclined to feeding than ploughing He saw, too, a Berkshire harvest-home: 'As we were returning to our inn (at Windsor) we happened to meet some country people celebrating their harvest-home, their last load of corn they crown with flowers, having besides an image richly dressed by which perhaps they would

signify Ceres; this they keep moving about, while men and women, men and maid-servants, riding through the streets in the cart, shout as loud as they can till they

tells us, no doubt with patriotic bias, that 'our oxen are such as the like are not to be found in any country of Europe both for greatness

of body and sweetness of flesh, their horns a yard between the tips.' Cows had

doubled in price in his time, from 26s 8d to 53s 4d.'Our horses are high, but not

of such huge greatness as in other places,' yet remarkable for the easiness of their pace; and 5 or 6 cart-horses will draw 30 cwt a long journey, and a pack-horse will carry 4 cwt without any hurt,—a statement which is one more proof of the poorness of the roads The chief horse fairs were at 'Ripon, Newportpond, Wolfpit, and Harborow,' where horse dealers were as great rogues as ever Pigeons were still the curse of the farmer, and their cotes were called dens of thieves

By the end of the sixteenth century, certainly by the first quarter of the seventeenth, the villein, who in the Middle Ages had formed the bulk of the

It is probable that even at the beginning of the Tudor period the great majority of the bondmen had become free, and that the serf then only formed one per cent of the population, and many of those had left the country and become artizans in the towns, for personal serfdom had outlasted

demesne farming; though even there the heavy hand of the lord was upon them and enforced the ancient customs

In the sixteenth century flax was apparently grown upon most farms, the statutes

34 Hen VIII, c 4, and 5 Eliz., c 5, obliging every person occupying 60 acres of tillage to have a quarter of an acre in flax or hemp, and Moryson says the husbandmen wore garments of coarse cloth made at home, so did their wives, and

'Good flax and good hemp to have of her ownIn Maie a good housewife will see it

be sowne',

sings Tusser The statute of Henry VIII enjoined the sowing of flax and hemp because of the great increase of idle people in the realm, to which the numerous imports, especially linen cloth, contributed

Saffron also was much grown, that at Saffron Walden in Essex was said to be the

best in the world, the profit from it being reckoned at £13 an acre Its virtues were

innumerable, if we may believe the contemporary writers; it flavoured dishes, helped digestion, was good for short wind, killed moths, helped deafness, dissolved gravel, and, lastly, 'drunk in wine doth haste on drunkenesse.'

The most important novelty of this century was the potato, which the colonists, sent out in 1586 by Sir Walter Raleigh, brought from Virginia to Ireland, though it had been introduced into Europe by the Spaniards before this According to Gerard, the old English botanist, it was, on its first introduction from America, only cultivated in the gardens of the nobility and gentry as a curious exotic; and in

1606 it occurs among the vegetables considered necessary for a nobleman's household.[241]

It is curious to find Gerard comparing it to what he calls the 'common potato', in reality the sweet potato brought to England by Drake and Hawkins earlier in the century In James I's reign the root was considered a great

delicacy, and was sold to the queen's household at 2s a lb., an enormous price

Like most agricultural novelties it spread very slowly, but about the middle of the seventeenth century began to be planted out in the fields in small patches in

At this date it was looked upon as a very second-rate article of food, if we may judge by

the Spectator (No 232), which alludes to it as the diet of beggars About 1690,

Houghton says, 'now they begin to spread all the kingdom over,' and recommends

Eden notes its increasing popularity during the eighteenth century, and by his time (the end of that century) in many parts it was the staple article of food for the poor; in Somerset the

children mainly subsisted on it, and in Devon it was made into bread Its cultivation on a large scale in the field did not, however, spread all over England till the Napoleonic war, and the ignorance and prejudice against it lasted for long; even Cobbett called it 'the lazy root,' and whole potatoes were used for seed regardless of the number of eyes

In 1563 was passed the famous Act, 5 Eliz., c 4, which Thorold Rogers has asserted to be the commencement of a conspiracy for cheating the English workman of his wages, to tie him to the soil, to deprive him of hope, and to

The violence of this language is a prima facie reason for doubting the correctness of his assertion, which on examination is found to be grossly exaggerated Under Richard II the justices were authorized to fix the rate of wages, provided they did not exceed the maximum fixed by Parliament The Elizabethan statute abolished the maximum and left the justices to fix reasonable rates So far from being an attempt to keep wages down it seems to have been an honest effort to regulate them according to prices,[245]

whereas most previous statutes had merely reduced wages The preamble of the Act states this clearly enough, saying that the existing laws with regard to the hiring and wages of servants were insufficient; chiefly because the wages 'are in dyvers places to small and not answerable to this time respecting the advancement of prices in all things

that belong to the said servants and labourers, the said lawes cannot conveniently without the great greefe and burden of the poore labourer and hired man be put in due execution.' But as several of these Acts were still beneficial it was proposed to consolidate them into one statute in order to banish idleness, advance husbandry, and give the labourer decent wages It was enacted therefore that all personsbetween the ages of twelve years and sixty, not being otherwise occupied,

'nor being a gentleman born, nor having lands of the yearly value of 40s., nor goods to the value of £10,' should be compellable to serve in husbandry with 'any

person that keepeth husbandry' by the year, and the hours of work were re-enacted

The rates of wages of artificers, husbandmen, &c., were to be ascertained yearly by the justices and the sheriff, 'if he conveniently may,' at quarter sessions, 'calling unto them such discrete and grave persons as they shall thinck meete and conferring together respecting the plentie or scarcitie of the tyme and other circumstances necessary to be considered,' and the wages fixed were to be certified into Chancery Then proclamations of the wages thus determined were to be made

in the cities and market towns Every person who gave higher wages than those

established by the proclamation was to be imprisoned for ten days and fined £5,

every receiver to be imprisoned twenty-one days The importance still attached to the harvest season is shown by the section that all artificers and others were

compellable to work in harvest or be put in the stocks two days and a night For the better advancement of husbandry and tillage every householder farming 60 acres of tillage or more might receive an apprentice in husbandry, but no tradesman or merchant might take an apprentice save his own son, unless his parents had

freehold of the annual value of 40s.; and no person was to use 'any art mistery or

manual occupation now in use' unless he had served seven years' apprenticeship to

it There can be no doubt that the clauses last quoted confined a large portion of the population to agricultural work, but as we know that the people were deserting the country and flocking to the towns, this must have seemed to the framers of the law very desirable

This method of fixing wages was in force until 1814, and its repeal then was entirely contrary to the opinion of the artizan class; but it may be doubted if the magistrates extensively used the powers given them by the Act, and wages seem to have been settled generally by competition Several instances remain, however, of wages drawn up under this Act Almost immediately after it was passed, in June

1564, the Rutland magistrates met under the Act, and stated that the prices of linen, woollen, leather, corn, and other victuals were great, so they drew up the following list of wages[246]:—

A bailiff in husbandry, having charge of two plough lands, at least should have by

A chief servant in husbandry, which can eire (plough), sow, mow, thresh, make a rick, thatch and hedge, and can kill and dress a hog, sheep, and calf, by the year

A common servant in husbandry, which can mow, sow, thresh, and load a cart, and cannot expertly make a rick, hedge, and thatch, and cannot kill and dress a hog,

A mean servant in husbandry, which can drive the plough, pitch The cart, and thresh, and cannot expertly sow, mow, thresh, and load a cart, nor make a rick, nor

thatch, by the year 24s., and 5s for his livery

The chief shepherd is only to receive 20s and 5s for his livery; but this must be an

error, as in the statutes 6 Hen VIII, c 3, and 23 Hen VI, c 12, he was placed next the bailiff as we should expect

These wages were evidently 'with diet', and show a considerable advance on those

By the day the ordinary labourer was to have 6d in winter, 7d in summer, and 8d to 10d in harvest time, 'finding himself.' A mower with meat earned 5d., without meat 10d a day; a man reaper with meat 4d., without 8d.; a woman reaper 3d., and 6d

As the price of corn and meat was three times what it had been in the fifteenth century, and the labourers' wages, taking into consideration his harvest pay, not quite double, the Rutland magistrates hardly observed the spirit of the Act Rutland, moreover, judging by the assessments of the time, was a county where agriculture was very flourishing; and thirty years after we find in Yorkshire that the

winter wages of the labourer were 4d.and the summer 5d a day: that is, he had

little more wages than in the fifteenth century, with provisions risen threefold At

Chester at the same date his day's wages were to be 4d all the year round.[248]

In

decreed that an ordinary labourer was

to have 6d a day in winter and 7d in summer, the same wages as in 1564, yet wheat in that year averaged 32s 7d a quarter A bailiff by the year was now advanced to 52s., a manservant of the best sort, equal no doubt to the chief servant

in husbandry, to 50s., a 'common servant' to 40s., and a 'mean servant' to 29s., but

all without livery At Chelmsford, in 1651, there was a very different rate fixed, the

ordinary labourer getting from 1s to 1s 2d a day; but this seems to have been exceptional, as at Warwick in 1684 he was only to have 8d., and as late as 1725 in Lancashire 9d to 10d a day.[250]

In 1682, by the Bury St Edmunds assessment, a

common labourer got 10d a day in winter and 1s in summer, and a reaper in harvest 1s 8d By the year a bailiff was paid £6, a carter £5, and a common

These figures clearly prove that the wages fixed by the magistrates were often terribly inadequate, though it must be said in their defence that the great rise in prices probably struck them as abnormal and not likely to last It should be remembered, too, that besides his wages the labourer and his family had often bye industries such as weaving to fall back upon, and in most parts of England still a piece of common land to help him

FOOTNOTES:

[238]Description of Britain, iii 2

[239]Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (New Series), xvii 235

[240]Moryson, Itinerary (ed 1617), iii 179

[241]Archaeologia xiii 371

[242]In 1650 it was much cultivated about London

[243]Collections on Husbandry and Trade, ii 468

[244]Six Centuries of Work and Wages, p 398

[245]Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, ii 38 The Statute of Labourers of 1351 made the

same effort, see p 43

[246]Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, iv 120; and Work and Wages, p 389

[247]See above

[248]Thorold Rogers, Work and Wages, pp 390-1

[249]Archaeologia, xi 200

[250]Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, p 396

[251]Cullum, Hawsted, p 215 It is strange to find food reckoned so highly; if the common labourer at Hawsted received his food, he was only paid 5d a day in winter, and 6d in summer; if

one man's food was reckoned at half his wages, how far did the other half go in feeding and clothing his family?