ABSTRACT
By 1820 the building labour process was fundamentally different from that at the beginning of the century. The system of apprenticeship was no longer statutory wage fixing by JPs had been abolished and piece-rates had been severely undermined, thereby driving a wedge between the wage and a customarily defined output. Nevertheless, one important aspect of the old system remained to act as an impediment to the ‘free’ negotiation of this transformed wage between workers and the new employers. This was the link between wages and poor relief, a remnant of the old system of statute labour on the roads.
