The building-accounts for the Beverley North Bar in 1409 give a record of all the wages paid; and from these we find that the wages of a bricklayer were 6d. per day, of a labourer 4d., and of a carter with his horse and cart 12d.[40] What would the ‘British workman’ of to-day think of the following scale of wages, which formed the _statute yearly wages_ in 1444:— With food and clothing. s. d. s. d. Bailiff of husbandry 23 4 or 5 0 Hind, carter, shepherd 20 0 ” 4 0 Labourer 15 0 ” 3 4 Woman servant 10 0 ” 4 0 Child under 14 6 0 ” 3 0 Footnote 40: The total cost of the building operations, from the surveying of the ground to the ‘roseynyng’ of the doors, was £96 17s. 4½d.—about £2000 in our money. The work of the _Trade Gilds_ in regulating the trade and industries of a town will be described in another chapter, but here is the place to refer to the work of the RELIGIOUS or SOCIAL GILDS which were so prominent a feature of mediæval town life. These were voluntary associations of men and women, who undertook to pay sums of money into a common fund, on which all members could draw during old age or during periods of sickness. In other words they were the Friendly Societies—the ‘Hearts of Oak,’ ‘Ancient Order of Foresters,’ and ‘Oddfellows’—of our own times. At Hull there were six of these Gilds, the most important being the Gild of St. John Baptist, the Gild of Corpus Christi, and the Gild of the Holy Trinity. In the case of the first of these a member undertook to pay two shillings of silver each year, in four instalments, and derived the following benefits, on becoming ‘infirm, bowed, blind, deaf, dumb, maimed, ... either in youth or age.’:— (1) weekly, one halfpenny of silver; (2) at the Festival of St. Martin in winter 5s. of silver for one garment. The entrance fee to this Gild was 13s. 4d., but that to the Gild of Corpus Christi was 3 lbs. of silver. Here, however, the ‘sick pay’ was correspondingly higher, being 14d. weekly; and if any brother or sister was in need 20s. was ‘granted on loan.’ In the reign of Edward VI. nearly all the Religious Gilds came to an end. Henry VIII. had intended their suppression, but it fell to the lot of Protector Somerset to be their actual destroyer. On the plea that they were engaged in religious services not in accordance with Government ideas, they suffered the fate of the monasteries; and their property in lands, houses, and plate—their invested funds we should call it to-day—was diverted to other purposes.