CHAP. XX.

INCREASED TRICES.

Ill

servants, and the manure they supplied made thecorn land more productive, so that with a muchsmaller portion of labour a quantity of corn wasraised quite equal to the wants of the community.Though manufactures were increasing, they couldnot absorb the surplus of rural labour. The pri-vileges of guilds and corporations, and the rightsof journeymen, which excluded all who had notserved apprenticeships, were obstacles to the em-ployment of the agricultural labourers, not tonotice that in general they were ill qualified forsuch occupations. Another cause from which thepoor suffered arose from the condition of thoselanded proprietors whose estates were let at longleases, who found when every article they con-sumed was doubled or tripled in price their in-comes remained unaltered. They were compelledto diminish their establishments, and as the modeleast painful was the dismission of their uselessor cumbersome domestics, we find constant com-plaints of the numerous serving men who wantedoccupation.

The manufacturers of the period must have beenin prosperous circumstances. Every raw materialWas rising, but still the demand was increasing.What was dear when purchased became still dearerby the operation of the mines, and was felt in thesale of it. In the present day the process of manu-facturing by machinery gives such rapidity to thewhole operation, that there is scarcely time for a