Some historians have considered trends in real income, because these are the
only valid ones. But, in terms of life itself, it really mattered little how a labour,
wage varied between, say, 12s and 16s a week, if a dwelling-house with water
supply, sewers and sanitation, in paved and drained streets, none capable, in
other words, of safeguarding a normal span of human life, could not be afforded
on any income under, say, 30s a week