Wife selling, out of fashion now, very popular in the past. Here are a few more articles on how to sell wife (see previous posts). When you can be so easily satisfied by some beer, brewers and pub owners must have been laughing all the way to the bank.
Selling a wife.–This barbarous occurrence actually took place in Merthyr Tydvil a few days ago between a workman of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks and another. The price for which the workman sold his wife was 3l. ; 2l. 16s. in cash and 16s. worth of beer, the latter to be drunk by the principal parties to the transaction. The husband seemed very well satisfied that he had not only got rid of his wife but also gained something in the bargain. As for the woman, she exhibited few symptoms of either shame or sorrow, and drunk her share of the beer.’
Stamford Mercury, 27 March 1863.