Prices and Wages by Decade: Up through 1779

Note: Due to considerable variation in currency values among colonies, Massachusetts wage data for the six occupations shown below may not be easily comparable to other geographies. Recommended reading: Colonial Currency in History of Wages in the United States from Colonial Times to 1928.

• Agricultural laborers 1752-1860
• Butchers 1771-1827
• Carpenters 1772-1860
• Laborers 1752-1860
• Masons 1774-1860
• Shoemakers 1754-1858

Shows wages paid for cutting, mowing and reaping, etc. by the acre. Source: USDA Wages of Farm Labor, published 1892.

Lists wages of bricklayers, carpenters, masons, etc. mostly expressed in British currency, but many of these provide US dollar equivalents. Source: U.S. Department of Labor.

Tells wages paid to prisoners of the Continental Army (usually Hessians). There was at the time high demand for skilled weavers, tailors, shoemakers, stocking-makers, millers, bakers, butchers, carpenters, joiners, smiths, and plasterers.

The chapter "Indenture and the Custom of the Country" provides discussion on how long people had to work to pay off the cost of their ocean voyage to America. Source: Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science (published 1904).

The 1872 Report of Commissioners on Bureau of Labor Statistics to the [New Hampshire] Legislature is an incredibly rich source of both prices and wages dating as far back as the 1600s. The book is not organized chronologically. Use Hathi Trust's keyword search feature or browse page by page.

Shows wages recorded in manuscripts found at local historical societies and state archives. Requires MU login to access, but non-affiliated individuals may pay for limited-time access.

This article discusses attempts by federal, state and local governments to use price and wage controls to combat inflation during the war. Included is a discussion of the Providence Convention and workers arguments and responses to price ceilings. Source: U.S. Dept of Labor.

This document discusses amounts of work pay and arrangements for work payments. A section on Wage Legislation discusses wage laws in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies in the 1600s. A section titled Money and Money Equivalent explains that wages were sometimes paid in agricultural products. The section Colonial Currency tells which currencies (English pounds, Spanish dollars, Dutch florins) were typically used in the various American colonies. A chapter on Indentured Servitude describes the economic backdrop that made this system so prevalent in early America. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin #604. Downloadable copy here.

Provides explanations and charts to help users calculate the current value of historic dollar amounts. Source: Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Association, Vol. 101 #2. Source

See section "Earnings from work" in a chapter "Two hundred years of work in America". Source: Employment and training report of the President, 1976.

By Philip L. Mossman, published by the American Numismatic Society (c1993).

A Project of the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment, University of Notre Dame, Department of Special Collections.

Chapter on indentured servitude explains the trade-offs for ocean passage, and that many were deceived regarding the terms of the agreement. Read more in History of Wages in the United States From Colonial Times to 1928, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 604.

Chapter 4 in History of manufactures in the United States, 1607-1860 provides an overview of the complexities in American colonial currency and prices.

From the book The History of money in America from the earliest times to the establishment of the Constitution by Alexander Del Mar (1899). See especially the chapter on British Colonial Monies. Fascinating description of typical negotiations when something needed to be purchased with money around 1700.

Table shows the decreasing value of continental paper currency for each month from 1777-1781.

Website provides online calculators, guides and tutorials to help researchers understand the modern value of historic money in America, Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

This article by Donald R. Adams provides great context for the data. It appeared in the September 1986 issue of Journal of Economic History. Available to MU affiliates and other JStor subscribers.

Table at bottom of page 531 compares the price of bread, meat and butter, as well as the rent for a laborer's cottage and rent of cultivated land per acre. Includes farm labor wages as well. All amounts expressed in shillings.

Chart shows the prices paid by Greenwich Hospital for meat, bread, flour, cheese, butter, beer, candles and coal in each decade from 1740-1860, and 1865. Also shows average weekly wages for building trade occupations in shillings and pence. Source: Wages and Earnings of the Working Class published in London, 1867.

Shows average prices of bread in England for each year from 1660-1899 on pages 27-35. Source: Three Centuries of Prices of Wheat, Flour and Bread (not a government document). The introduction to this table explains that these prices are for the type of bread consumed by lower middle classes, not the "fancy bread." Price sources are provided on page 21-22.