5 - THE STANDARD OF LIVING

Summary

Price and wage series, 1490 to 1609

Though many historians have underestimated London's capacity to absorb the influx of immigrants which fuelled its demographic growth during the Tudor period, it is clear that by the late sixteenth century the city was experiencing some difficulty coping with its expanding population. The increasingly vocal complaints about poverty, attributed primarily to unemployment, bear witness to the existence of growing numbers of people for whom survival was becoming difficult indeed. If work was harder to find during the later years of Elizabeth's reign, the fruits of whatever labour was found were diminishing in value as a result of the rise in prices experienced by London and the rest of Europe during the sixteenth century.

The price series discussed in this chapter is based upon more than four thousand prices compiled from the records of several livery companies, chiefly from accounts of expenses for dinners held at various times during the year. The accounts are extraordinarily detailed, itemising all expenditures from tuppence for currants to a pound or more for fresh salmon and including oddities such as a penny and a half for stockgillyflowers and monkshood or half a shilling for a dishwasher. Data on wages paid to skilled and semi-skilled construction craftsmen were derived from the companies' accounts as well. The accounts are either of construction, such as a new hall or the addition of a parlour to an existing hall, or more often of repairs or renovations to houses owned by companies.