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INADEQUATE WAGES 263
whereas the cost of living had risen by one-third ; and the
statement may be taken as approximately true. 1 During
the Protectorate the seamen had been paid 19s. od. a
(lunar) month, and ever since that time the rate of wages
for ordinary seamen had been 19s. od., and the rate for
able seamen 22s. 6d. The pay may have been adequate
at first ; but there is no doubt that the purchasing power
of money fell considerably during the eighteenth century.
Moreover the system of payment was very irregular. It
was a recognized custom that the crews should not be paid
until their wages were overdue by six months. But if a
ship was long in commission the wages were apt to fall
some years behindhand. The seamen were not allowed
to go ashore until their ship was paid off, and if in the
meantime any of them were in need of money their only
recourse was to the slopsellers who came on board when
the ship was in port. The slopsellers made advances
on security of the wages, as a bank discounts bills of
exchange ; only the rate of discount was naturally very
high, since the slopsellers had a monopoly of the moneylending
trade with the seamen. Everyone in the navy
had also to contribute a small amount to the funds of
Greenwich Hospital. Seeing that the gross nominal
wages of the ordinary seamen were only £23 a year, and
that from this amount various deductions had to be made,
it is evident that they were justified in saying that some
of them lived in " indigence and extreme penury," 2 and
some were ''but barely able to support themselves." 3
1. See petition to the Commons {Ann. Reg., 1797, State Papers,
p. 239), and petition to the Admiralty from the Defence (enclosed with
Sir Peter Parker's letter, A 354, A.S.I. 1022). According to the
petitions the wages were fixed by statute in the reign of Charles II.
But neither in the acts of his reign relating to the navy, nor in the
Calendars of State Papers, nor yet in the General Eegulations of 1770,
have I been able to find any mention of the subject. The rate may
have been determined by Orders in Council, or, as in 1797, simply by
the granting of supplies in Parliament, in accordance with estimates
prepared by the Admiralty.
2. Petition from the London to Charles James Fox (with Bridport's
letter, J 198, A.S.I. 107).
3. Petition from the Defence to the Admiralty, u.s.