24 ESSEX ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS AGO.
prices being lower than those of Sudbury. In summer they did whatever farm
work they were able to do, being better paid for it.
Near Braintree he found agricultural labour and provisions were as given
below :
As regards the rent of land, he states that from Bury across the rest of Suffolk,
and all Essex to Tilbury Fort, the mean rent is about 13s. 6d. or 14s. an acre.
Arthur Young found that bread was extremely uniform in price, being almost
everywhere, whether 10 or 100 miles from London, 2d. a pound. This he attri-
butes to the ease with which wheat can be transported, Butter, on the other
hand, not being easily moved from place to place, was decidedly dearer within a
dozen miles of the capital than at greater distances, the prices varying from 5d. to
8d. per lb. In parts of Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, where facilities for
water-carriage existed, there was a slight local rise of price. Beef and mutton
varied but little, from an average of 43/4d. at and within 20 miles of London, to 33/4d.
from 110 to 170 miles away; and, passing from food to candles, we find a variation
of from 7d. to 71/2d. per lb, in Essex, the higher price being paid in the central
and southern parts of the county, and the lower in northern Essex, Suffolk, and
Norfolk. In Gloucester and South Wales they varied from 6d. to 61/2d. per lb.
The average weekly prices of agricultural labour are given as—
But he adds that so much work is done by the piece that he believes the real
earnings are one-fourth more than the sums given above.