Note 174-8 — Chapter III

The bringing into juxtaposition of the rates of wages in different countries is doubtless one of the most important objects of comparative statistics. Only it is necessary not to confine it to the money amount of wages, but to make it embrace the prices of the principal means of subsistence. Thus, in France, before the outbreak of the French Revolution, a French workman earned a cwt. of bread on an average of 10.5 days; one of meat in 36.8; an English workman, in 10.4 and 25.3 days. (A. Young.) In the interior of Russia, a female weaver earns, in a day, almost one Prussian scheffel of rye, in Bielefeld, only about one-tenth of a scheffel; a table-cloth weaver, in the former place, 18 silver groschens, while the scheffel costs from 12 to 15 silver groschens. (von Haxthausen, Studien, I, 119, 170.) According to Humboldt, the money-wages paid in Mexico were twice as high, and the price of corn two-thirds as dear, as in France. (N. Espagne, IV, 9.) According to Rau, Lehrbuch, I, § 180, the procuration of the following means of subsistence required in day labor in:

Column code: A = Manchester. B & C = Hanover. D = Upper Canada. E = Brandenburg. F = Gratz.