Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1910-06-22

A clock, second hand .... l.20
Oxhide. best leather ........... 10000
Leopard's skin ............... 200 90
Lions skin ................ 10000
Shoes, laborer's ............... 24.0U
Shoes, patrician's ...... 5000
Shoes, senator's .......... 1000
Shoes, womans ......... 1895
Mule bride ........ 24.00
Mule whip ................. 800
In England and Europe.
In England, France, and Germany,
between 1850 and 1880 there were pc
riodic rises in the price of wheat and
barley, from as cents and 20 cents a
bushei up to $261 and 90 cents. In
1872 the Town Council OF Starsburg
tried to stop excessive prices by order
ing that no woman should spend more
than 80 gold forms (s7050) on a
dress. The working classes of Eng.
land, Germany, and France were pros
porous in the period 1451-1550, meas
ured by the purchasing power of
wages. In the second half of the
sixteenth century complaints were
constant of the increased cost of liv-
ing, In the early period the days
wage OF carpenter or mason brought
three-ifths OF a bnshel of wheat, while
In the nineteenth century it bought
one-fifth of bushel. In parts of Ger.
many In the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries a days wages
! bought only one-seYenth of bushel OF
/ rye.
The English parliament was first
| prompted to take measures against
high prices after the ravages of the
Black Death In 134S-49, when ii ex.
tended the local regulations over
prices and wages The Statute OF
Laborers (23 Edw. III, passed in 1919
provided that laborers should not ask
nor employers grant wages above the
old scale, and also that butchers
fishmongers, regrators, hostlers, brew
ers, b,kers, poulterers. and ali sellers
of all manner of victual shall be
boundAto serl the same victual for a
reasonable price, having respect to
the price that such victual be sold at
in the places adjoining. so that the
same sellers have moderate gain and
not excessive"
Wage Statute Revised.
| In 1850 a revised statute of laborers
fixed the daily wage Of a haymaker at
! a penny. corn harvester two to three
pence, carpenter and mason two to
four pence. while the price of shoes
was to be the same "as in the twenti.
eth year OF King Edward the Ill"
The diet and clothes of workingmen
of different CLASSES were prescribed
with minuteness, an under penalties
Of jail and fine In 1868 a law was
passed that the price of a Young
capon shall not pass three pence, and
OF an old cspon four pence Of hen
two pence, Of a pullet one penny, Of a
goose four pence" Under Henry
VIII, in 1888. certain judges and ofiici.
ais fixed the prices Of cheese, butter,
poultry. and other things A pream-
bic to the statute says 1t was necessa.
Fry By reasonof dearth, high prices,
and "the greedy coyetonsaees and
appetites Of the owners OF suth yictu-
ais
The exorbitagce Of book publishers
came under the ban in 1888. when a
law was passed fixing the price Of
books and binding Then years later
It was discovered that beer barrels
cost too much, and a law fixing their
I price went through parliament. A le-
gal price for longbows was estab.
lished Under Queen Anne in 1903
and George II. IN 1853 the old Assize
I Of Bread was elaborated and the price
Of all kinds Of loayes Of bread, accord
ing to the price Of grain, constituents
AVID weights Of loayes, was ostab-
4 lisAed
Early American Attempts.
Valiant legal attempts 10 combat
| high prices OF commodities were made
in This country during the American
Revolution The Continental Congress
a ked the IS states 70 pass laws that
might amend the high cost Of living
I Massachusetts, IN 1777 tried h rely 10
1 do her share BY passing a statute that
limited the price Of farm labor to
three shillings a day in summer and
I fTed The price Of wheat at seven shlil