Word: labor
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Dates: during 1900-1909
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...increase in proportion to their salaries, but that they were governed by independent laws. In the fifteenth century, transport from Rouen to Amiens (80 miles) cost as much as the transport today from the west of the United States to Havre would cost; but the wages of labor in the sixteenth century represented 10 hectolitres of wheat, while nowadays they represent 37 1-2 hectolitres...
...yesterday, M. d'Avenel said that the history of salaries is bound up with the struggles of four-fifths of any nation, who have sold their lives to be able to live. In the Middle Ages, where feudalism was everywhere present, nothing was paid for in money, but in labor. People engaged themselves in exchange for commodities; but such contracts soon became very odious, and every attempt was made to annul them. In consequence of the rising of values, debtors found it to their advantage to take back any land, renouncing the services which were the price paid therefor...
...point, which people who have not followed M. d'Avenel's work usually lose sight of is the fact that the corporations of the Middle Ages, resembling those of the present day, had no influence on the amounts of salaries. The proportion between the salary of skilled and unskilled labor, was the same then as today...
Work usually lasted only 250 days a year, the rest of the time being taken up by enforced holidays, which diminished the well-being of laborers. M. d'Avenel shows that women have gained about 75 per cent, over the wages of the Middle Ages, while men have lost about 50 per cent. This is due to the free competition among women. As they have been able to earn more, the marriage burdens on men have been lessened, which has given rise to larger families. Today, one hour's labor procures half the quantity of provisions that it would have...
Agricultural labor was paid very little in the early Middle Ages, but as its necessity increased, and as the tools were poor, it became dearer. In the time of Louis XVI, however, the land was at its highest period of cultivation, while the condition of the laborer had fallen to a very low state. The history of property shows the economical forces which make human combinations necessary; through its development labor organizations have been materially affected...