The Case of Labourers in Husbandry Stated and Considered, In Three...
An Important Statistical Analysis of Laborers Under the Poor Laws Davies, David [1742-1819]. The Case of Labourers in Husbandry Stated and Considered, In Three Parts. Part I. A View of their Distressed Condition. Part II. The Principal Causes of their Growing Distress and Number, And of the Consequent Increase of the Poor-Rate. Part III. Means of Relief Proposed. With an Appendix; Containing a Collection of Accounts, Shewing the Earnings and Expences of Labouring Families, In Different Parts of the Kingdom. Dublin: Printed for P. Byrne, 1796. viii, 240 pp. With a half-title. Octavo (9" x 5-1/4"). Original publisher's boards, printed paper label ("Davies Case of the Poor") to spine, edges untrimmed. Light rubbing and soiling to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, chipping to spine ends, front joint cracked, rear joint starting, corners bumped. Light toning to interior, light foxing and soiling in a few places. $1,750. * Only Dublin edition, published after the first Bath edition in 1795. This groundbreaking work seeks to publicize the plight of day laborers under the poor laws "and to claim for them the just recompence of their labour" (2). Using a detailed study of the budgets of laborers and their families, Davies advocates reform of the poor laws that would tie the poor rate and the minimum wage to the price of wheat, ensuring that all families could afford bread. His early use of statistical data paralleled and in many ways anticipated the work of other social scientists, commentators and reformers like Samuel Whitbread and Sir Frederic Eden, author of The State of The Poor (1797). Well-received, a second, abridged edition of the work was published in London in 1828. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature 16797. English Short-Title Catalogue N3277.
Price: $1,750.00
Book number 74456