Agricultural History Review, Volume 43 Part 1 (1995), pp. 19–34

Based on three long sets of farm accounts, this article examines the records of hire of 130 male and female servants to evaluate changes in contractual arrangements and in rates and methods of payment, and to consider commercial integration of hired labour and, by extension, financial agreements between employer and employee by assessing the nature and cost of items acquired by workers and set against their wages. The survey revealed distinct changes over time in the ways in which workers were hired and paid, apparent in the growing distinctions in the conditions offered to individual workers and, significantly, to male and female workers, suggesting that employers sought to maximize returns on labour through the imposition of increasingly money-defined and time-specific terms and conditions of service. Examination of items set against wages not only informed an inventory of material possession and purchase but also stressed the degree to which paid work was used to fund independent economic activity; while the transfer of debt and obligations between individuals highlighted both the role of employers and the perception of the family as an economic unit in enabling and underwriting a variety of commercial and financial transactions. 

Complete Volume PDF