Source: Jan de Vries 2/13/08 lecture, originally from Phelps-Brown and Sheila Hopkins (1956), "Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables, Compared with Builders' Wage- Rates," Economica 23:92 (November), pp. 296-314 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0427%28195611%292%3A23%3A92%3C296%3ASCOTPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C
- Extraordinarily impressive nominal wage rigidity across long spans of history.
- Beware, however: the "ancillary" terms of the wage contract could and did vary at a much higher frequency ("we can still only pay you three pence a day, but we'll add a piece of sausage and a mug of beer at lunchtime"--that sort of thing).
- Neverthless, aside from 1932, 1921, and 1333, nominal wages simply do not fall. It doesn't happen.
