Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1910-06-16

A clock .................. 800
A clock, second hand ........ 10
Oxhide, best leather ..... .120 90
Leopard's skin 200 90
Lions skin 200 90
Shoes, laborer's ... 240U
Shoes, patrician's ......... 5000
Shoes, senator's ........... 1000
Shoes. Woman's ... 1900
Mule bride 240O
Mule whip 3.20
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 48 cents and 20 cents a
bushel up to 1921 and 80 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 ($70.5O) on a
dress. The working classes of Eng
land, Germany, and France were pros
ured by the purchasing power OF
! wages. In the second half of the
sixteenth century complaints were
| constant Of the increased cost of liy-
ing. In the early period the days
wage OF carpenter or mason brought
/ three-fifths of bushel of wheat. while
| in the nineteenth century it bought
| one-flfth of a bushel. In parts of Ger
many in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries a days wages
bought only one-seyenth of a bushel OF
rye.
The English parliament was first
prompted to take measures against
high prices after the ravages of the
Black Death in 1348-49, when it ex-
tended the local regulations over
prices and wages. The Statute Of
Laborers (23 Edw. IT'D, passed in 1349,
provided that laborers should not ask
nor employers grant wages above the
old scale, and also that butchers;
fishmongers, regrators, hostlers, brew
ers, bakers, poulterers, and all sellers
of all manner Of yictual shall be
bound to sell 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, all under penalties
of jail and fine In 1863 a law was
passed that the price of young
capon shall not pass three pence, and
OF an old capon four pence, of hen
two pence, OF pullet one penny, of a
goose four pence" Under Henry
VIII, in 1888, certain judges and ofici-
ais fixed the prices of cheese. butter,
poultry, and other things A pream-
BILE to che statute says it was necessa-
~ by reasonof dearth, high prices,
and ''tEe greedy covetousness and
appetites of the owners of such victu-
ais"
The ex0wbitance OF book publishers
came under the ban in 1888, when
law was passed fixing the price of
books and binding. Then years later
it was discovered that beer barrels
cost too much, and law fixing their
price went through parliament. A Ie-
gal price for longbows was estab-
lished. linden Queen Amaze in 1909
and George IL, in 1853 the old Assize
of Bread was elaborated and the price
of all kinds of loaves Of bread, accord
ing to the price. of grain, constituents
and weights OF loaves. Was estab-
lished
Early American Attemrts
Valiant legal attempts to combat
high prices of commodities were made
in this country during the American
Revolution. The Continental Congress
asked the Is states to pass laws that
might amend the high cost of living
Massachusetts, in r7T7 tried frayely to
do her share by passing a statute that
limited the price of farm labor to
three shillings day In summer and
fiyed the price of wheat at seven shILI-
Tngs bushel, not to mention the
prices of salt, rum. sugar, shoes, mo
lasses, cotton, beef, flannel, wool.
leather, cloth and ffeRr No citizen
was allowed to have more food or
other commodity in his house than he
needed and was compelled to sell the
surplus at fixed price. This law
was repealed the same year that it
was enacted.
New York State IN 1778 fixed the
wages of laborers and mechanics, the
price of most commodities and regu-
lated the profits OF tradesmen and
merchants. The law was repealed the
,,oar r.