The stocks for the poor might be expected to operate unfavourably on the wages of unskilled labour; but there is no trace of their having done so. Wages rose during the Commonwealth it is true, but they rose also during the reigns of the earlier Stuarts and continued to rise until near the end of the century. This rise in wages seems to have been increased rather than checked by the enforcement of the Book of Orders, probably because the casual labourer had a far more depressing effect on the labour market when he wandered everywhere than when he was regularly employed by the stock of his parish. Moreover if the system affected wages at all, it would affect the unskilled labourer rather than the skilled. But after the Civil War the unskilled labourer gains relatively less: it is the more skilled forms of labour that are better paid[730]. It thus seems fairly certain that the stocks for setting the poor to work did not unfavourably influence the wages of the lower class of labourers. [730] Between 1600 and 1688 wages rise continuously in every decade. If we take the decennial averages of labour given by Prof. Rogers we find that between the accession of James I. and 1688 in most cases the greatest increase of wages was during the period from 1643 to 1652. But this increase may be largely owing to the disturbances of the Civil War, since from 1663 to 1672 the rate of increase is less than that of any preceding ten years of the century. With the exception of the decade of the Civil War the greatest rise in wages occurs during the ten years immediately preceding, from 1633 to 1642, that is during the time when the organisation established by the Book of Orders was established. Moreover the increase is the more remarkable when we compare the rates of wages with the price of corn. For from 1633-1642 the average price of wheat per quarter was 41_s._ 2_d._, while from 1643-1652 it was 48_s._ 11_d._, and during the next ten years 47_s._ 2¼_d._ _Hist. of Agric. and Prices_, Vol. V., p. 276. The average price of wheat was therefore considerably lower during the decade before the War. The following are the decennial averages of the worst paid labour given by Prof. Rogers, _Hist. of Agric. and Prices_, Vol. V., p. 672: