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:
“It costs you something to do good!”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“When it comes to finances, remember that there are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.”
—Mae West (1892–1980)