or even for triple the price. There are perhaps
no manufactures, in which the division
of labour can be carried further, or in which
the machinery employed admits of a greater
variety of improvements, than those of which
the materials are the coarser metals.
In the clothing manufacture there has, during
the same period, been no such sensible reduction
of price. The price of superfine
cloth, I have been assured, on the contrary,
has, within these five-and-twenty or thirty
years, risen somewhat in proportion to its
quality, owing, it was said, to a considerable
rise in the price of the material, which consists
altogether of Spanish wool. That of the
Yorkshire cloth, which is made altogether of
English wool, is said, indeed, during the
course of the present century, to have fallen a
good deal in proportion to its quality. Quality,
however, is so very disputable a matter,
that I look upon all information of this kind
as somewhat uncertain. In the clothing manufacture,
the division of labour is nearly the
same now as it was a century ago, and the
machinery employed is not very different.
There may, however, have been some small
improvements in both, which may have occasioned
some reduction of price.
But the reduction will appear much more
sensible and undeniable, if we compare the
price of this manufacture in the present times
with what it was in a much remoter period,
towards the end of the fifteenth century, when
the labour was probably much less subdivided,
and the machinery employed much more
imperfect, than it is at present.
In 1487, being the 4th of Henry VII., it
was enacted, that "whosoever shall sell by retail
a broad yard of the finest scarlet grained,
or of other grained cloth of the finest making,
above sixteen shillings, shall forfeit forty shillings
for every yard so sold." Sixteen shillings,
therefore, containing about the same
quantity of silver as four-and-twenty shillings
of our present money, was, at that time, reckoned
not an unreasonable price for a yard of
the finest cloth; and as this is a sumptuary
law, such cloth, it is probable, had usually
been sold somewhat dearer. A guinea may
be reckoned the highest price in the present
times. Even though the quality of the cloths,
therefore, should be supposed equal, and that
of the present times is most probably much
superior, yet, even upon this supposition, the
money price of the finest cloth appears to have
been considerably reduced since the end of the
fifteenth century. But its real price has been
much more reduced. Six shillings and eightpence
was then, and long afterwards, reckoned
the average price of a quarter of wheat.
Sixteen shillings, therefore, was the price of
two quarters and more than three bushels of
wheat. Valuing a quarter of wheat in the
present times at eight-and-twenty shillings,
the real price of a yard of fine cloth must, in
those times, have been equal to at least three
pounds six shillings and sixpence of our present
money. The man who bought it must
have parted with the command of a quantity
of labour and subsistence equal to what that
sum would purchase in the present times.
The reduction in the real price of the coarse
manufacture, though considerable, has not
been so great as in that of the fine.
In 1463, being the 3d of Edward IV. it
was enacted, that "no servant in husbandry
nor common labourer, nor servant to any artificer
inhabiting out of a city or burgh, shall
use or wear in their clothing any cloth above
two shillings the broad yard." In the 3d of
Edward IV., two shillings contained very
nearly the same quantity of silver as four of
our present money. But the Yorkshire cloth
which is now sold at four shillings the yard,
is probably much superior to any that was
then made for the wearing of the very poorest
order of common servants. Even the money
price of their clothing, therefore, may, in proportion
to the quality, be somewhat cheaper
in the present than it was in those ancient
times. The real price is certainly a good deal
cheaper. Tenpence was then reckoned what
is called the moderate and reasonable price of
a bushel of wheat. Two shillings, therefore,
was the price of two bushels and near two
pecks of wheat, which in the present times, at
three shillings and sixpence the bushel, would
be worth eight shillings and ninepence. For
a yard of this cloth the poor servant must have
parted with the power of purchasing a quantity
of subsistence equal to what eight shillings
and ninepence would purchase in the present
times. This is a sumptuary law, too, restraining
the luxury and extravagance of the poor.
Their clothing, therefore, had commonly been
much more expensive.
The same order of people are, by the same
law, prohibited from wearing hose, of which
the price should exceed fourteen-pence the
pair, equal to about eight-and-twenty pence of
our present money. But fourteen-pence was
in those times the price of a bushel and near
two pecks of wheat; which in the present
times, at three and sixpence the bushel, would
cost five shillings and threepence. We should
in the present times consider this a very
high price for a pair of stockings to a servant
of the poorest and lowest order. He must,
however, in these times, have paid what was
really equivalent to this price for them.
In the time of Edward IV. the art of knitting
stockings was probably not known in any
part of Europe. Their hose were made of
common cloth, which may have been one of
the causes of their dearness. The first person
that wore stockings in England is said to
have been Queen Elizabeth. She received
them as a present from the Spanish ambassador.
Both in the coarse and in the fine woollen