CHAPTER II COMPARISONS OF STANDARD OF LIVING Standards of living as measured by statistics at different periods and in various regions in relation to the three fundamentals — food, shelter and clothing. Influence of investigations upon a recognition of need for further protection of man's human rights. STANDARD OF LIVING AS MEASURED BY STATISTICS A standard of living is psychic and a state of mind or point of view, and no statistics have yet been devised which will directly interpret the meaning of this subtle term. However, when dealing with men as a mass, statistics afford the only means of evolving this concept from the subconscious mind. In treating with the statistical method, the birth-rate or the number of children is a somewhat overt phenomena that may be utilized as a test for the standard of living of a people. In two countries with about similar resources, the birth-rate stands practically as a test of the standard of living. In making comparisons of studies of standards of living in various countries at different periods of time, the only available means of attack is through the method of figures. However, computations must be handled with great caution, for, otherwise, erroneous conclusions may be drawn. Statistics proceed upon concrete objects, because items that are essential or admit of much comfort and pleasure in one country, will become of negligible value in another. For example, money income has a different purchasing power at different times and places. Or, a cruder illustration might be that some clothing which is an absolute need in the Arctic region would be a burden in the Tropics. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF STANDARD Of Living (a) STANDARD OF LIVING IN IRELAND IN 1672 One of the first recorded definitions of this elusive phrase was aptly expressed by Sir William Petty in his " Economic Writings," circa 1672, when he states: "that the expense of the Laborer may well enough stand for the Standard of the Expense of the whole mass of If the words "real wage as expressed by the economist be substituted for the word " expense " in the two instances of its use as above quoted, we then have the modern conception. This means income, necessities and comforts measured by those terms, and not at all as represented by the word "money." Real wages are not always a money wage, for all people, except misers, care only for money in the sense that it is an order upon the general public for what one desires. This early economist estimated that Ireland's trade was of small dimensions because the standard of living of the masses was low in that country. According to Petty, the people lived in houses which they themselves could build in three or four days and were not worth more than 5 shillings ($14.60*), and they provided most of their own clothes and food. In treating of money statistics, it is necessary to consider the purchasing power of money in the country and epoch with which one is dealing. In the following statistical analysis, money is first quoted simply in the currency of the country, and then an attempt is made to reduce the quotation to the purchasing power in terms of American dollars in pre-war values. He adds that a man's clothing altogether would cost 30 shillings ($87.60*) a year, as a hat costs 20d ($4.87*), a pair of stockings 6d ($1.46*) and a good shirt 3s ($8.76*); clothing of children under sixteen years of age cost 15 shillings ($43.80*); while the entire yearly expense for a family containing six persons would not exceed 52 shillings ($151.84*) a year.2 1 Petty, Sir William, "Economic Writings," 1672, Vol. I, pp. 305-6. This means the expense of the laborer in Ireland in 1672. He remarks: "But if they consider how much the number of the poor, and their children, is greater than that of the rich; although the personal expense of some rich men should be twenty times more than that of a laborer; yet the expense of the laborer above mentioned may well enough stand for the expense of the whole mass of mankind." 2 Ibid., p. 188. *See note 3, page 17. The wages of a laborer are 8d ($1.95*) a day or 4 shillings ($11.68*) a week, if food is not provided by the employer. If board is given, then the wage is 2 shillings ($5.84*) a week, making a total of £5.4s ($303.67*) a year. The laborer works ten hours per diem and is able to make 20 meals a week; viz., three meals a day for working days with two meals on Sundays.3 "The diet of these people is milk, sweet and sower, . . . but tobacco taken in short pipes seldom burnt, seems the pleasure of their lives, together with sneezing; in so much as 2-7 of their expence in food, is tobacco. Their food is bread in cakes, whereof a penny serves a week for each. Potatoes from August till May; muscles, cockles and oysters near the sea. . . . Eggs and butter made very rancid, by keeping in bogs. As for flesh, they seldom eat it." 4 "In brief, the victuals of a man, his wife, three children and servant resolved into money may be estimated at 3s 6d ($10.23 *) per week or 1d ($.24*) per diem." Petty obviously means 1d per capita per diem. He claims on the whole that the housing of the 1,100,000 people in Ireland consisting of 200,000 families in 1672, was wretched, although the clothing of the people was far superior to that of the French peasants. The sheep-growing in Ireland was responsible for this, since twelve sheep furnished enough wool to clothe an entire family. HOUSING CONDITIONS IN IRELAND On the other hand, the housing conditions, clothing and diet of the 16,000 families in Ireland who could claim a house of more than one chimney, were very much like those of families in England similarly situated." Again, in referring to the number of people living in the houses: See Petty, Sir William," Economic Writings," 1672, Vol. I, p. 110. £=$4.8665; shilling = $0.24322; pence = $0.2028-values before 1914. *In modern pre-war values, multiplying by 12, a moderately low estimate, shows the purchasing power of the pence, shilling and pound at this period. (Rogers, James E. Thorold, "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," 1884, p. 428.) ♦ Ibid., pp. 190-1. Ibid., pp. 141-3, 190-1. "That in the meanest of the 160 m. cabins, one with another are five souls; in the 24,000 six souls. In all the other houses ten apiece, one with another." (b) STANDARD OF LIVING IN ENGLAND, 1665-1700 According to the computation of Mr. Gregory King, in 1688 the average income of common laborers and servants in England was £15 ($875.97*) a year, with families averaging three and a half persons; and the weekly expense per capita was 20d ($4.87*) a head. About this same period, 1665-1680, Lord Chief Justice Hale found that the expenses of a laborer's family in England consisting of man, wife and four children, would be £26 a year ($1,518.35*), or ten shillings ($29.20*) a week, or £1 ($4.87*) per capita per week. From the tables appended, one learns that in 1661 and 1680 the wage of a man averaged 1s to 1. 2-6 ($2.92-$7.30*). Therefore, unless the wife supplemented the husband's wage, there would be a deficit." There were 160,000 cabins without chimneys "whose worth was not reckoned"; but as for the others, he rated them as follows: 7 See Ruggles, Thomas, "History of the Poor," 1794, London, Vol. II, p. 107: ESSEX- EASTER SESSIONS - 1661 Common laborers, fellers and makers up of wood, ditches and hedges, threshers and all other common laborers, by the day, the time of harvest excepted. These figures are borne out by Sir John Cullam, who writes of the County of Suffolk in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The wage of a man haymaker per day was 5d ($1.22*), while the wage of a woman haymaker reached per day ($.73*).8 Woman's labor was scarce in these centuries. In 1450 it varies from 2s to 1s 6d ($5.84-$4.38*) a week for women weeders in harvest time, and 1s ($2.92*) a week is the average wage.9 See Cullam, Sir John," History and Antiquities of Hawsted, County of Suffolk," 1813, p. 248. Rogers, J. E. Thorold, "History of Agriculture and Prices in England," 1887, Vol. VI, p. 698: A bailiff in husbandry Chief husbandman or carter WAGES BY THE YEAR 2nd hind or husbandman or common servant over 18 yrs. 4th man under 18 years Dairy maid or cook Best hired servants with meat and drink for harvest Ordinary harvestman 6 5 653 00000000 'See Rogers, J. E. Thorold, "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," 1884, pp. 428, 540: |