CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
Street. For more than twenty years the site remained vacant, till, in 1815, it was given by the Government for the Scotch Church.
During the years in which these changes were taking place and transforming Calcutta from a trading factory to a city, Fort William was gradually approaching completion. There had been considerable trouble with contractors and skilled labourers, and a large number of brick-layers and artificers were sent out from England by the Court of Directors "for the better carrying on of the works." These men received wages ranging from £60 to £90 a year, but, owing to the large number of houses which were being built and the consequent demand for labour, they were able to command much higher salaries from private employers, so that, in 1766,—
"the Committee of Works complained that out of nine hundred or one thousand bricklayers formerly in the Company's pay, all but twenty-three had been seduced into private employ by higher pay, and they asked for an order that the price of all labour should be determined by what the Company pay, and all skilled labourers should be registered and private persons be allowed to employ them only as they can be spared."
It would be interesting to know if the native
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