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3 - Calories consumed by labourers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

Craig Muldrew
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

Let such have ynough

That follow the plough.

Give servant no dainties, but give him ynough,

Too many chaps walking, do beggar the plough

Poor seggons halfe starved, worke faintly and dull

And lubbers doo loiter, their bellies too full.

Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, 1573

You may not exede this proporcon whiche although it be slender yet yt wilbe sufficient.

Order for the Diet at the House of Correction at Westminster, 1561

In the last chapter many examples were given of the amount of beer, meat and other foods eaten by labourers. Here I will focus specifically on contemporary examples of actual daily diets, and the number of calories they provided. This will be done in order to judge how much food was available to perform the work needed to power the agricultural economy. A wide range of household accounts from the mid-sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century survive which have information on food served to servants and day labourers. These will be analysed to determine how many calories were eaten on a daily basis by labourers. In addition, prescribed institutional accounts for soldiers and for inmates in houses of correction, workhouses and hospitals will also be looked at. However, apart from the diet provided by Jacob Vanderlint for a London labourer and his family in the mid-eighteenth century there are no earlier diets for entire labouring families comparable to Eden and Davies.

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Chapter
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Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness
Work and Material Culture in Agrarian England, 1550–1780
, pp. 117 - 162
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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  • Calories consumed by labourers
  • Craig Muldrew, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness
  • Online publication: 04 February 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511933905.005
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  • Calories consumed by labourers
  • Craig Muldrew, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness
  • Online publication: 04 February 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511933905.005
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Calories consumed by labourers
  • Craig Muldrew, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness
  • Online publication: 04 February 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511933905.005
Available formats
×