the long run it would actually be “good business” to set a good table.
In consequence, the price of Commons was always kept below the current rates for reasonable living—“lower,” as one commentator puts it, “than that ordinarily paid for the board of paupers.”[1] In 1643 the College entertained the Assembly of Elders at a dinner, which was served “after the manner of scholars commons, for the encouragement of the Students, but somewhat better,” at a cost of sixpence a plate![2] If this was festal fare, what was the ferial? As time went on, the price of course followed the gradual rise in the cost of living, but always lagged woefully behind. In 1654 the charge was 4s. 6d. a week; compare this figure with the sum allowed by the courts a few years later for the board of jurymen, 2s. 7d. a day![3] In 1765 the rate was 7s. 4d. a week, while a warm protagonist of the system afterwards admitted that “pleasant” board would have cost 20s.[4] Seven years later the rate was actually reduced to 7s. From 1808 to 1830 the figure remained at $1.75;[5]
- ↑ B. H. Hall (H. C. 1851), article on “Commons,” Harvard Book, ii, 114. This elaborate essay, fully annotated and with many extracts from original documents, is the best general reference on the subject.
- ↑ Savage, Winthrop’s History of New England, ii, *137.
- ↑ Paige, History of Cambridge, 229.
- ↑ “College Laws” of September, 1765; Peirce, Hist. Harv. Univ., 220. At Princeton in 1752 the rate was 7s. “York Currency” or 80¾ cents. Putnam’s Monthly, ix, 634.
- ↑ Or, as it was still denominated, “‘ten and sixpence.”’ Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 199.
