No wonder. The pay was terrible for such a skilled job.
For a stone and lime built house in Partick in the 1600s the contract not including materials was 530 Scottish Merks. Which is about £4K today’s money. Between all the workers.
Even with differences in buying power it’s still not a lot.
Of course the council thought otherwise and actively put limits on how much a person was allowed to earn per year depending on their job. This was trialled in Rutherglen but didn’t roll out to Glasgow City… the one time GCC didn’t fuck over their constituents I guess! |