12.11. Wages, Expenses, Real Wages, 1770-1860

The agricultural and non-agricultural occupations have to be calculated and analysed separately, as there are a number of differences in wages and in structure of expenses.

Wages

	Agricultural	Non-agricultural
Wage level	Defined by farmers’ incomes, i.e. wheat prices	Defined by negotiations with business owners, or with impersonal market
Wages movements in high-inflation periods	Protected from high cereal costs	Not protected
Extra payments	Summer wages, harvest wages,task work, gleaning	No extra payments
Non-cash benefits	Beer/cider, some cottages free of rent, own collection of wood for fire	None

Expenses

	Agricultural	Non-agricultural
Proportions food	50 % cereal, 10 % meat	25 % cereal, 15 % meat
Cereals	Baked in own ovens for bread	Loaves bought in bakers’ shops
Meat	No “red meat”	Beef, mutton, pork
Pig meat	Pig fattened at cottage,  sold, or killed and eaten during the year	Pork meat bought
Clothing	Heavy duty	Change to cotton

The resumed data for the agricultural labourers for the whole period 1770 to 1860, based on the pages above and the previous chapter, are as follows:

(Average weekly winter wages per man)

The expenses, calculated according to the consumption percentages of an agricultural family, were:

And the wages adjusted for inflation (only the man’s weekly winter wages) increased by only 21 % from 1770 to 1860.

COMPARISON 1770 TO 1860 AGRICULTURAL WORKERS, WEEKLY WAGES 1770 = 100  WAGES             169 EXPENSES       139 REAL WAGE    121

We have to make adjustments from the man’s wage to the total family income:

The “model” for the agricultural families is as follows:

1. of the number of adult male workers in the basis data per year, 80 % are men of 20 years or more;
2. we suppose that exactly these men are heads of family, and thus this figure gives the number of families;
3. the extra income for the man is made up of: 4 months summer wage, 10 % more than the winter wage, 1 month harvest wage at double rate, task work at different percentages during our period;
4. for each family, there are proportionally 10 % young men of 16 to 19, who earn a full wage;
5. 30 % of families have a son from 12 to 16 years, who earns 30 % of the father’s basic wage;
6. starting from 1770, and decreasing to zero in 1820, 80 % of the wives earn 3 shillings a week from spinning;
7. starting from 1840, 30 % of the wives work in the fields at 40 % of the man’s basic wage;        
8. the income of little girls from spinning is negligible;
9. the income of little boys working in the fields is negligible.

	Average wage	Average wage	Weekly wage	Bushel wheat
	Shillings week	without spinning	Shillings	Shillings
	Family		Man
1770	13.5	11.1	6.5	5.3
1775	13.7	11.3	6.6	6.2
1780	14.0	11.9	7.0	3.8
1785	13.3	11.9	7.0	5.1
1790	13.8	12.6	7.4	6.7
1795	16.2	15.2	8.9	9.1
1800	16.7	15.9	9.3	13.8
1805	17.3	17.0	10.6	10.9
1810	18.4	18.2	11.3	12.9
1815	19.5	19.4	12.1	8.0
1820	18.9	18.8	11.7	8.2
1825	17.5	17.5	10.9	8.3
1830	16.7	16.7	10.4	8.0
1835	16.4	16.4	10.2	4.6
1840	17.4	17.4	11.0	8.3
1845	15.1	15.1	9.5	6.3
1850	15.2	15.2	9.5	5.0
1855	17.3	17.3	10.9	9.3
1860	17.5	17.5	11.0	6.8

The above figures as to the man’s wages and the family’s wages, show an increase in real wages of only about 20 % from 1770 to 1860. But it must be taken into account that the wage figures start from a high position. The family income in 1770, including spinning, was 13 shillings per week, which could purchase 2.6 bushels of wheat.  

COMPARISON 1770 TO 1860 AGRICULTURAL WORKERS TOTAL FAMILY, WITHOUT SPINNING 1770 = 100  WAGES                  158 EXPENSES.            139 REAL WAGES       114

COMPARISON 1770 TO 1860 AGRICULTURAL WORKERS TOTAL FAMILY, WITH SPINNING 1770 = 100  WAGES                  130 EXPENSES.            139 REAL WAGES         94