11.4. Purchasing Power of the Wages

We now show the comparison between the wages and the price of the 4 lbs. of wheat, that is, how many 4 lb. units of wheat could be bought with one week’s wages.

	A. Young 1770	Enq Board Agric	General View 1st Serie	F. Ede	Enq Board Agric	General View 2nd Series
		1793	1794	1795	1803
Bedford	9.6			8.1		20.4	1808
Berkshire	19.5		19.5	10.9		25.7	1808
Buckinghamshire	16.3			12.5		19.3	1808
Cambridge	10.7					22.5	1807
Cheshire	33.5			14.2		19.3	1806
Cornwall						22.5	1808
Cumberland	33.5		27.0	15.0
Derby	24.4		22.5	17.8			1816
Devon			21.0	11.7		15.0	1808
Dorset	15.0		18.0	20.0			1811
Durham	20.3		25.0	12.8		24.4	1810
Essex	15.0		30.0	16.9		30.0	1807
Gloucester	15.8		19.5	14.2		15.0	1805
Hampshire	19.8		25.0	12.3		22.5	1808
Hereford			18.0	15.0		15.0	1804
Hertford	16.8		18.0	8.8			1804
Huntingdon	13.9						1811
Kent	18.8		26.3	10.7		33.8	1803
Lancaster	28.5		30.0	15.0		21.0	1809
Leicester	22.5		20.5	11.3		22.5	1807
Lincoln	15.0		22.8	15.9			1799
Middlesex	18.8		27.0	15.0		18.8	1805
Monmouth	18.0		27.0	19.3		16.4	1810
Norfolk	16.3		23.3	14.1			1803
Northampton	25.5		18.0	14.1		17.1	1809
Northumberland	29.0		24.4	24.0			1805
Nottingham	22.5		23.2	12.0
Oxford	13.8			12.0		15.8	1807
Rutland	10.3		19.5	12.5		22.5	1808
Shropshire			19.1	12.5			1801
Somerset			18.0	10.0
Stafford	25.1		17.3	11.3
Suffolk	16.8		20.0	15.0
Surrey			27.0	13.0			1809
Sussex	22.5		21.3	12.3
Warwick			19.1	10.0			1812
Westmoreland			45.0	23.8
Wiltshire			28.1	10.6			1813
Worcester	15.5		16.2	12.8		11.3	1805
York E Riding	27.4		28.5	20.6		28.1	1811
York N Riding	21.3		21.0	15.0
York W Riding	19.5		24.0	18.8
Average	18.4		22.7	13.5		21.0

In the terms of this table, the “sufficiency point”, would be about 15 units of 4 lbs. a week; that is, 60 lbs (one bushel per week), which was general held to be the food requirement for a family. At a level of 15, the basic weekly wage of the father would be enough for food; the sum of piece-work, the differences for hay season and harvest season, and the incomes for the wife and from children might just cover rent, fuel and clothing.

We see that the amount for 1795 (high prices due to the insufficient harvest, and the extreme cold at the beginning of the year), absolutely did not reach this level. 

Below we have a first approximation to a comparison of the earnings of the Middle Case family (see below, Absolute Figures as to the Standard of Living), and their cost of living, in terms of the inflation in wheat prices, for the years 1760 to 1825. The earnings include the hay and harvest wages, task-work income, and the earnings of the wife and children, and are taken to be 2.2 times the basic weekly winter wage, averaged over the counties of England. The living costs are equivalent to the price of 2.2 bushels of wheat, including an additional 30 %, which is the difference between the market price for wheat, and the price of the middleman to the labourers. (see Davies, 1795, pp. 33-34).   

According to these results, the average earnings kept up with the net movements in the wheat price during the years 1760 to 1794 (except 1766-1767), and also in the the years 1819 to 1825. In the years of scarcity and thus high prices (1795-1796, 1800-1801, 1808, 1810-1813), the weekly wage could not pay these prices.