--------+-----------+----------- | Rate per | Rate per Years. | day in | day in | winter. | summer. --------+-----------+----------- 1760 | 4_d._ | 6_d._ 1765 | 6_d._ | 8_d._ 1770 | 8_d._ | 10_d._ 1772 | 8_d._ | 12_d._ 1776 | 7_d._ | 9_d._ 1780 | 8_d._ | 10_d._ 1791 | 8_d._ | 11_d._ 1793 | 9_d._ | 12_d._ 1798 | 11_d._ | 14_d._ 1799 | 12_d._ | 15_d._ 1800 | 14_d._ | 16_d._ 1802 | 16_d._ | 18_d._ 1811 | 18_d._ | 22_d._ 1812 | 20_d._ | 24_d._ 1816 | 18_d._ | 22_d._ 1817 | 16_d._ | 20_d._ 1819 | 15_d._ | 18_d._ 1822 | 12_d._ | 15_d._ In 1812, farm servants boarded in the house received from 14_l._ to 22_l._ a year; women servants from 5_l._ to 8_l._ At present, (April, 1823,) men receive from 10_l._ to 14_l._, and women from 3_l._ 10_s._ to 6_l._ Masons’ wages per day were three shillings in 1812, and are now half-a-crown. All work done by the piece, such as building stone fences, cutting ditches either for fences or drains, making roads, &c. may be done at a greater reduction of price than the fall in the rate of labour by the day. Work is now performed more frequently by the piece; and the best labourers are employed by the day; while the inferior workmen, and those unable from age, or other causes, to perform a full day’s work, are turned over to work by the piece. Agricultural affairs are under such depression, that the work is curtailed, and the competition for work is thereby increased.[W] The first thing that strikes us in the table is the very remarkable rise of labour in Scotland from 1760--much greater than in England, and much greater than in proportion to the rise in the price of corn. This was no doubt owing in part to the comparatively unimproved state of the district in question, and of Scotland in general at the earliest period adverted to. But to go no farther back than 1790, the period with which we commenced in England, it appears that the rise from 1790 to 1811, was considerably greater than in England, and nearly in proportion to the rise in the price of wheat. If, indeed, we take the price of labour as mentioned in the table for 1812, and compare it with the average price of wheat for the four years from 1812 to 1815 inclusive, during which period the same price of labour seems to have continued, it will appear, that labour, taking summer and winter wages together, rose in the proportion of from 19_s._ to 44_s._, while wheat rose from 43_s._ in 1792, (according to the average of England and Wales, which commences with that year,) to 88_s._ and therefore labour rose decidedly more than wheat, except in reference to the peculiarly high price of wheat in 1812.