Costs and Wages
Wages were low in Britain in the 18th century because of a surplus of labor. The average was about 50 shillings (£2.5) a year for a plowman, and 40 shillings (£2) a year for an ordinary unskilled worker. Ship captains negotiated prices for transporting and feeding a passenger on the seven or eight week journey across the ocean, averaging about £5 to £7, the equivalent of four or five years of work back in England.
Read more about this topic: Indentured Servant
Famous quotes containing the words costs and/or wages:
“Like cellulite creams or hair-loss tonics, capital punishment is one of those panaceas that isn’t. Only it costs a whole lot more.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth’s foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)