ABSTRACT
Map 6.4 includes Scottish as well as English counties and thus is not directly comparable with 6.2. It shows that Scottish farm wages in the 1790s were distinctly low when judged by English standards. There were a number of less badly paid counties in central and southern Scotland, but all of the twenty-one counties with farm wages of 6s. 6d. a week or less were north of the border. The most interesting feature on Map 6.4, however, is that most of the better-paid counties were now in the north of England, a marked contrast with the position in 1767-70. This change is most clearly evident when Maps 6.2 and 6.5 are considered together. At the earlier date none of the 11 highest-wage English counties were to the north of Nottinghamshire and most were in the southeast: by 1794-5, 6 out of 11 high-wage counties were north of Nottinghamshire, 2 others were in the Midlands, and only 3 were in the southeast. Five northern counties which appeared among the lowest-wage counties in 1767-70 (Northumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, and the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire) were among the highest-wage counties by 1794-5. London remained a highwage centre and wages were still high in some counties nearby. But southern counties more distant from London had suffered a substantial fall in relative wages.
