Prices and wages are the social phenomena most susceptible of objective statistical record over long periods of time. They reflect and measure the influence of changes in population, in supply of precious metals, in industrial structure and agricultural methods, in trade and transport, in consumption and in the technical arts. Forming part of publications of the International Committee on Price History, this is Volume I of data from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. It was originally published in 1939 and almost the entire stock was destroyed during an air-raid. The present volume is a facsimile of that edition. This volume looks at the Mercantile era.

First published in book form in 1981, this collection of essays originally written between 1955 and 1966 contains ground-breaking research and analysis on the study of wages and prices across seven centuries, with particular reference to builder’s wage rates and the price of a bundle of the commodities on which these wages might be spent. These seminal contributions to the economics of labour and economic growth did much to fuel the debate surrounding the problems of inflation, stability and changes in the purchasing power of money upon the book’s initial publication. These concerns are every bit as relevant in today’s post credit-crunch society and this reissue will be welcomed by all students of economic history and labour economics.

Originally published in 1937, this book provides a statistical analysis of wages and income in the United Kingdom from 1860 onwards.