Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2Roscher, Wilhelm
General
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2
Roscher, Wilhelm
Economics
According to the first annual report of the poor law
commissioners (202), the weekly wages in Manchester of
hod-carriers was 12s.; of hand-weavers, 7-15s.; of diggers,
10-15s.,; of pack-carriers, 14-15s.; of shoemakers, 15-16s.;
of machine-weavers, 13-16-5/6s.; of white-washers, 18s.; of
tailors, 18s.; of dyers, 15-20s.; of plasterers, 19-21s.; of
masons, 18-22s.; of tinsmiths, 22-24s.; of carpenters, 24s.;
of spinners, 20-25s.; of machinists, 26-30s.; of iron
founders and power-loom tenders, 28-30s. In Belgium, the
average daily wages for male labor was 1.18 francs for
agricultural laborers; for those engaged in industry, 1.48
francs; in the manufacture of linen, 0.80 francs; of cotton,
1.55; of woolens, 1.62; of silk, 1.25; of stockings, 1.14;
of glass, 2.58; of coal, 1.33. All according to the
Statistique générale de la B. In Athens, in the time of
Aristophanes, a pack-carrier earned 4 oboli a day; a street
sweeper, 3; a stone cutter on the public works, 6; a
carpenter, 5; for roofing houses and taking down
scaffoldings, each man, 6. The architects who superintended
the building of the temple of Polias, on the other hand, got
only 6 oboli per day, and the contractor 5. (_Böckh_, I, 165
ff.)
The Edictum Diocletiani of the year 301 after Christ
contains the following provisions in relation to wages,
besides "board:" shepherds, camel-drivers and muleteers, 20
denarii; agricultural laborers, water-carriers, scavengers,
25; bakers, masons, roofers, house-finishers and repairers
of the inside, lime burners, wheelwrights and common clay
moulders, 50; boatsmen, sailors, makers of marble or mosaic
floors, 60; wall painters, 70; clay moulders for statues,
75; artistic painters, 150. (ed. _Mommsen_, cap. 7.) In
slave countries, the price of different slaves is to be
judged, mainly, by the above rules. Concerning the Greeks,
see _Böckh_, I, 95 ff. _St. John_, The Hellenes, III, 23 ff.
It is a characteristic fact that the Romans, after the
Syrian war, began to pay high prices for the hitherto much
despised kitchen slaves. (_Livy_, XXXIX, 6.) Remarkable
fixed prices for slaves by _Justinian_: Cod. VI, 43, 3; VII,
7, 1, 5. Thus, in the Lex Burgundionum, tit. 10, the
compensation for the murder of a common laborer is fixed at
30 solidi; of a carpenter, at 40; of a smith, at 50; of a
silversmith, at 100; of a goldsmith, at 150. Advanced
civilization is wont to raise the price of slaves who
perform work of a higher quality, just as it raises the
wages of labor of a higher quality.]
SECTION CLXX.
RATE OF WAGES.--INFLUENCE OF CUSTOM.
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