Money Answers All Things [50]
the Year round: -- ; -- ; 1s. 3d.; -- Sand, Fullers Earth, Whiting, Small Coal, Brick-dust: -- ; -- ; 2d.; -- 10 Shilling Small Beer, a Firkin and a Quarter per Week: -- ; -- ; 3s. 1 1.2d.; -- Ale for the family and friends: -- ; -- ; 2s. 6 d.; -- Coals, between 4 and 5 Chaldron per Annum may be Estimated at: -- ; -- ; 2s. 6d.; -- Repairs of Houshold Goods, as Table Linnen, Bedding, Sheets, and every Utensil for Houshold Occasions: -- ; -- ; 1s. 6d.; --
6 s. 2 d. per Head Weekly for seven Persons amounts to near: -- ; -- ; L.2 3s. 1 1/2d.; L. 112 10s.
Yearly Expence Brought over 112 l. 10 s. Cloaths of all Kinds for the Master of the Family: 16 l. Shaving 7s. 6d. per Quarter, and cleaning Shoes 2s. 6d. per Quarter: 2 l. Cloaths for the Wife, who can't wear much, nor very fine Laces with: 16 l. Extraordinary Expence attending every Lying in L. 10, supposed to be about once in two years: 5 l. Cloaths for four Children, at L. 7 per Ann. each Child: 28 L. Schooling for four Children, including every Charge thereunto relating, supposed to be equal at least to ten Shillings per Quarter for each Child: 8 l. The Maid's Wages may be: 4 l. 10 s. Pocket Expences for the Master of the Family, supposed to be about four Shillings per Week: 10 l. 8s. For the Mistress of the Family, and for the four Children to buy Fruit and Toys, etc. at two Shillings per Week: 5 l. 4 s. Entertainments in return of such Favours from Friends and Relations: 4 l. Physick for the whole Family one Year with another, and the extraordinary Expence arising by illness, may be much more than: 6 l. A Country Lodging sometimes for the Health and Recreation of the Family, or instead thereof, the extraordinary Charge of nursing a Child abroad, which in such a Family is often thought needful: 8 l. [Sub-total] 225 l. 12 s. Rent and Taxes may be somewhat more or less than: 50 l. Expences of Trade with Customers, and travelling Charges, Christmas-Box-Money, and Postage of Letters, etc. for the sake of even Money, at least: 19 l. 8 s. Bad Debts which may easily be more than 2 per cent on the supposed Capital of L. 1000: 20 l. [Sub-Total] L. 315. There must be laid up, one Year with another, for twenty Years, in order to leave each Child, and a Widow if there should be one, L. 500: 75 l. L. 1000 therefore by this Estimate should gain one Year with another: 390 l.
Which for the sake of a round Sum I will call 40 per cent per Annum, in order to support such a Family, and provided L. 500 a Piece for four Children, and a Widow, if there should be one left, which if not, will augment each Child's Share but L. 125. And here I suppose a Man to live twenty Years from his Marriage to his Demise, which take to be about the term one Man or Woman with another doth live. I don't mean by this that no Man or Woman lives longer from the Time of Marriage than twenty Years; I know many live much longer; but I am equally certain that as many never reach this Term as others live beyond it. And it will also many Times happen, that 5, 6, 7, 8 or more Children must be brought up by some Parents, tho' perhaps it will more frequently happen that less than four will be raised by others. But those that shall happen to have seven or eight Children, will find the 75 l. per Ann. supposed in this Estimate to be laid up, in order to provide 500 l. a Piece for four Children, hardly sufficient to bear the extraordinary Charge, which so many more Children will occasion in this Rank of Living. And surely it must be very hard, that the Man who happens to have a numerous Family (and many such there always are) should thereby be render'd not only uncapable to provide any Thing for them to set out in the World with, but be reduced in a Course of Years, as he certainly must, if L. 1000 in Trade will not produce at least 40 per cent per Annum.
But I have not produced this Estimate, only to shew what is the needful charge for the decent Support of such a Family in this Rank of Life, but chiefly to shew that our Trade is in a much worse State than it was about forty or fifty
6 s. 2 d. per Head Weekly for seven Persons amounts to near: -- ; -- ; L.2 3s. 1 1/2d.; L. 112 10s.
Yearly Expence Brought over 112 l. 10 s. Cloaths of all Kinds for the Master of the Family: 16 l. Shaving 7s. 6d. per Quarter, and cleaning Shoes 2s. 6d. per Quarter: 2 l. Cloaths for the Wife, who can't wear much, nor very fine Laces with: 16 l. Extraordinary Expence attending every Lying in L. 10, supposed to be about once in two years: 5 l. Cloaths for four Children, at L. 7 per Ann. each Child: 28 L. Schooling for four Children, including every Charge thereunto relating, supposed to be equal at least to ten Shillings per Quarter for each Child: 8 l. The Maid's Wages may be: 4 l. 10 s. Pocket Expences for the Master of the Family, supposed to be about four Shillings per Week: 10 l. 8s. For the Mistress of the Family, and for the four Children to buy Fruit and Toys, etc. at two Shillings per Week: 5 l. 4 s. Entertainments in return of such Favours from Friends and Relations: 4 l. Physick for the whole Family one Year with another, and the extraordinary Expence arising by illness, may be much more than: 6 l. A Country Lodging sometimes for the Health and Recreation of the Family, or instead thereof, the extraordinary Charge of nursing a Child abroad, which in such a Family is often thought needful: 8 l. [Sub-total] 225 l. 12 s. Rent and Taxes may be somewhat more or less than: 50 l. Expences of Trade with Customers, and travelling Charges, Christmas-Box-Money, and Postage of Letters, etc. for the sake of even Money, at least: 19 l. 8 s. Bad Debts which may easily be more than 2 per cent on the supposed Capital of L. 1000: 20 l. [Sub-Total] L. 315. There must be laid up, one Year with another, for twenty Years, in order to leave each Child, and a Widow if there should be one, L. 500: 75 l. L. 1000 therefore by this Estimate should gain one Year with another: 390 l.
Which for the sake of a round Sum I will call 40 per cent per Annum, in order to support such a Family, and provided L. 500 a Piece for four Children, and a Widow, if there should be one left, which if not, will augment each Child's Share but L. 125. And here I suppose a Man to live twenty Years from his Marriage to his Demise, which take to be about the term one Man or Woman with another doth live. I don't mean by this that no Man or Woman lives longer from the Time of Marriage than twenty Years; I know many live much longer; but I am equally certain that as many never reach this Term as others live beyond it. And it will also many Times happen, that 5, 6, 7, 8 or more Children must be brought up by some Parents, tho' perhaps it will more frequently happen that less than four will be raised by others. But those that shall happen to have seven or eight Children, will find the 75 l. per Ann. supposed in this Estimate to be laid up, in order to provide 500 l. a Piece for four Children, hardly sufficient to bear the extraordinary Charge, which so many more Children will occasion in this Rank of Living. And surely it must be very hard, that the Man who happens to have a numerous Family (and many such there always are) should thereby be render'd not only uncapable to provide any Thing for them to set out in the World with, but be reduced in a Course of Years, as he certainly must, if L. 1000 in Trade will not produce at least 40 per cent per Annum.
But I have not produced this Estimate, only to shew what is the needful charge for the decent Support of such a Family in this Rank of Life, but chiefly to shew that our Trade is in a much worse State than it was about forty or fifty