known as _week-work_. He had also to give
what was called _boon-work_--namely, three days a week in harvest.
Another type of unfree tenant was the _gebur_, who held a yardland of
some thirty or forty acres, which, upon his entrance, was stocked with
two oxen, one cow, six sheep, tools and household utensils. His
week-work amounted to two or three days a week, as the season required;
in winter, he had "to lie at his lord's fold," when bidden; and he had
to contribute his quota of boon-work. Certain payments also had to be
made.

The first attempt to regulate wages was made in the statute of 12
Richard II., cc. 3-7, the preamble of which affirms that "the servants
and labourers will not, nor by a long season would, serve and labour
without outrageous and excessive hire, and much more hath been given to
such servants and labourers than in any time past, so that for scarcity
of the said servants and labourers the husbands and land tenants may not
pay their rents nor unnethes live upon their lands, to the great damage
and loss as well of their lords as of all the commons; also the hires of
the said servants in husbandry have not been put in certainty before
this time."

The "hires" were now defined, and this act penalized masters who paid
labourers at a higher rate than was allowed under it. The scale of wages
varied in different reigns. Here we may confine ourselves to the
provisions of the statute of 11 Henry VII., which not only determined
the maximum payments, but sanctioned reductions on legitimate grounds.
Thus regard was had to the current wages in the locality, which the
employer was under no obligation to exceed. Less was to be paid at
holiday than at other times; and if a man were lazy in the morning or
lingered over his meals, he might be mulcted at his master's discretion.

Premising that the purchasing power of a penny in the fifteenth century
was about twelve times as much as it is now, we are able to form some
idea of the economic position of the different classes which were the
subjects of this legislation. The bailiff, it appears, might have a
salary of 26_s._ 8_d._; the common servant in husbandry cost 16_s._
8_d._ and 4_s._ for clothes; and the artisan received per day 5_d._ in
the summer and 6_d._ in the winter. This brings us to the hours of
labour, which depended on the season, and were also regulated by
statute. These were from 5 a.m. till between 7 and 8 p.m. from the
middle of March to the middle