48. Pilgrim's Progress




Short Stories of Science and Invention A Collection of Radio Talks by Charles F. Kettering INDEX		*48.* *Pilgrim's Progress* In early Boston there was very little money - most business was conducted on a barter basis. As an example, a carpenter would make a bench and take some beaver skins for pay; these in turn would be shipped to England or traded for some other commodities. Because money was scarce, wages were low. A skilled workman would get two shillings or about 50 cents a day. But in those days food was also cheap - those two shillings would buy a thirty pound Thanksgiving turkey! Wages and prices, then as now, followed economic law and adjusted themselves to each other Clothing, like the furniture, was in most cases home made. In every house there were a hand loom and a spinning wheel. The housewife's duties, like her husband's, began at daybreak and went on until after dark - cooking, spinning, weaving, making clothes; and, very often she had to be the family doctor even to the extent of preparing her own medicines. As one historian puts it, "The basic principles of human conduct in the Puritan civilization were Work and Piety." It is difficult for us today to realize that this was America three centuries ago. Try to imagine ourselves in that civilization with no transportation, or communication, no stoves, furnaces or running water. There were no newspapers, telegraph or telephone.