The Black Death struck medieval man with ruthlessness and ferocity. Plague was a most disgusting, repugnant and disruptive disease. It halted war, wiped out whole families initiated acts of desperation, decimated villages, interrupted the economy, created moral dilemmas and underscored the only certainty--death. Death revealed its power by intensifying economic, social and political processes, which had been in evidence since the beginning of the century.

The economic prosperity of the later thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries was a passing phase. England was mainly dependent on agriculture for its wealth at that time, and the agricultural system required vast amounts of labor to maintain its level of output. The production of-grains pro-vided food for home consumption and for some exportation of produce. However, it was the growing wool trade, supported by vast herds of sheep, which was to provide the most sought after English export commodity. As England entered into fourteenth-century, the limits of agrarian expansion were being reached. This is indicated by increased rates in the clearing of marginal lands to expand the areas under cultiv-ation, and by accounts that are indicative of acute land shortages. (Titow, 222-223) Due to the overpopulation prior to 1348, followed by a great population deficit, the prosperity of the early thirteen hundreds was not again attained until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (Postan, 338)

Evidence of the end of an expanding prosperity was revealed clearly during the famine years of 1315-1317, which brought a decisive halt to the expansion of the system of high farming. "High" or "domain" farming was the principal feature of thirteenth-century English agriculture. (McKisack, 316) Under this system the great lay and ecclesiastical lords hired labor to farm many thousands of acres of their demesnes, producing cash crops for sale or export. While enforcing the labor services of their bondsmen they maintained large herds of cattle and sheep (Johnson, 140). Any divergence from this system of farming would have constituted a radical change in the existing organization of agriculture. (Murphy, 70) After the years of famine, there was an increased trend for great landowners to dispose of outlying property or manors by selling or leasing them for cash rents. This indicated that there was a greater number of small farmers or villeins who independently worked and owned their own land. Commutation of labor services in exchange for money payments was also gradually taking place before the Black Death, further undermining the manorial system. (Cunningham, 370) But it was the plague of 1348 which caused the great demographic decrease which, in turn, accelerated the end of feudalism in England. (Hirst, 13)

A Russian historian, Evegenii Alekseevich Kosminskii, denies an eminent place to the Black Death in fourteenth century history. His is a Marxist viewpoint, which holds that primary emphasis should be placed on the struggle between feudalism and capitalism. The beginning of this struggle is said to have begun well before the time of the plague, thus making the pestilence a footnote in an era of class struggle. (42)

Kosminskii emphasizes the problematic quality of demographic data for the period, casting doubt on the possibility that England was overpopulated, or had reached its population peak before the plague. Yet he places the date for the "decisive" changes in feudalism in the fourteenth and fifteenth-centu-ries.

Kosminskii appears to be too wraped up in doctrines and dogma. An enormous change was taking place in the econ-omy of medieval England. Its roots lie in events before the plague, but its growth, nurtured by plague, bore the fruits of intense transformation after 1348. There are few, if any, villages in England today which did not exist in 1348, as evidence of deserted villages illustrates. (Beresford, 8-75) Recent evidence, such as that of J. Z. Titow in his study of Taunton Manor, reveals population increases and fluctuations due to plague or famine. This tends to back up the view of Postan in this matter. (Titow, 218-223) The agricultural revolution and the migration to cities during the depressed periods of the fourteenth-century are noteworthy occurrences, but it is suggested that greater forces were at work here.

With the coming of plague, and the death-of twenty to forty per-cent of the populace, gradual economic change became more of a stampede. It took some time for the full impact of the population deficit to become fully evident even though the largest number of land vacancies existed in the years immediately after the initial impact of the Black Death. (Postan, 590) Rees has provided much information from manorial rolls illustrative of decreasing land values, rents and disuse or decay of property. (see Appendix III)

At plague time there was an over-abundance of goods of all kinds to be had at very low prices. This, coupled with the instant wealth attained upon inheritance, led to a period of wild expenditure and extravagance. (Postan and Rich, 343) The survivors found themselves much richer than they had ever been before. The extreme mortality had automatically increased the amount of money per-capita and provoked a shortage of manpower. Wage-earners were able to demand higher salaries while debtors and tenants could more easily pay their dues. The stability of grain prices meant that real income among laborers improved by the end of the century. There was a growing migration of workers from the country to the cities in order to meet the demand for laborers there. (Robbins, 450-451)

Other factors nullified the benefits of this new wealth. Grain rotted in the fields for lack of labor to harvest it and prices rose to double what they had been immediately after the plague (Rees, 27-45). When the beleaguered economy began to function with mo9re normalcy again, the high cost of labor necessitated a great readjustment in the old order. This predetermined the probable elimination of certain jobs. There was a reduction in the mining of copper and tin, and a decrease in the exportation of coal. A decline in the production of silver necessitated a debasement of coinage, as related by John Capgrave. (214)

It is also noted that labor was not as well organized after the plague than before when a more definite economic system prevailed. (Cunningham, 370) The toll in lives had been heaviest where urbanization and agrarian population was thickest due to the etiology of the plague, giving rise to the observation that the cream of the economic world ahd been skimmed. (Postan and Rich, 343) Although the manorial system could not be restored to its former preeminence, the new demand by labor for higher wages brought governmental intervention. The Statute of Laborers, 1349, was a royal ordinance issued to force wage levels back to what they had been in 1347. (Appendix I) This ordinance was unworkable. Because of the great shortage of laborers, bailiffs were willing to pay whatever price was necessary to fill the need for workmen. This tended to nullify the effect of the decree. Henry Knighten described reaction to the king's order. (Dobson, 63-64)

In 1351, parliament issued the second Statute of Laborers (Appendix II). This had much the same effect as the first ordinance. By this time associations, much like modern trade unions, were being formed as a defense against such acts and for the payment of fines. Perhaps because the plague had diminished the income accruing from direct taxation, (Unwin, 222) fines imposed under the statute were made payable to the exchequer. Those hiring labor were not going to actively impose fines only to turn them over to the crown. Wages on estates near Winchester rose sixty per-cent from 1320-1329 to 1370-1399, and on the estates of Westminster the increase was nearly one hundred per-cent. (Johnson, 154)

lt appears evident that the principal pressure behind the legislation of the second Statute of Laborers did not come from the feudal landlords, who were by this time deriving the bulk of their revenues from rent, but from smaller landowners who still cultivated their own fields. (Postan, 608-609) The result of the efforts to turn the clock back and prevent inevitable change in the economic sphere brought government and parliament into greater contact with the masses, as more people became involved in the operations of the state. (Johnson, 157) The wage and price situation took on a very peculiar twist. Agricultural produce underwent no significant rise in price after the depression caused by the Black Death while everything requiring skilled labor increased in cost. Wool, cheese, butter, eggs, fat, candles, cider, and firewood cost much the same as in pre-plague days, while charcoal, salt, lime, iron, laths, tiles, nails, millstones, iron clouts, horseshoes, wheels and a host of other items, many crucial to the continuation of agricultural production, inflated up to one hundred per-cent. (Rogers, 237-239) Therefore, those involved in agricultural pursuits could expect to pay more for labor and still more for the maintenance of their productive capability. The landlord was also beset by the fact that while wages nearly doubled, land values fell. (Robbins, 463-464) The demographic decline was universally evident, the loss of life being greater in the more heavily populated areas and correspondingly less in the more thinly inhabited regions. The result was that wages rose least in the west where there existed the sparsest population.

After the great mortality, the rate of commutation of service to money payment increased. Certainly, the century which followed the Black Death witnessed the near total disintegration of the manorial system. (Coulton, 137) The reduction of available labor and resulting higher wages, gave the working class a better bargaining position. Landlords were determined to enforce the old services rather than permit commutations. Labor, however, favored commutation in order to be able to work elsewhere for higher wages. This resulted in a sharp decrease in services which saw the substitution of money rents for old tenures. (Zacour, 49) The landlord often tried to obtain high rates when renting his lands, but found that he could not obtain as much as he needed. Therefore, in many instances, he even rented his entire demesne to ease the problem of insufficient laborers in order to realize enough income from his domains. A new class of yeomen farmers began to emerge in significant numbers, "a real agrarian middle class." (Coulton, 137-138)

The overall economic result of the plague on agrarian life was beneficial in many ways to labor, but it also had adverse effects. It produced a radical decrease in population while raising the standard of living. Yet, to be able to cope with the loss of manpower, laborsaving devices were introduced in order to increase productivity. The butter-churn, and the scythe instead of the sickle exemplify this trend. (Johnson, 154) Also, when landowners organized estates and reordered their management to fit the new situation, expedients were resorted to which allowed for a reduced scope of employment.

In some instances the reduction of employment caused difficulty in maintaining the existing population. (Cunningham, 397) One expedient which was used was to turn land, which had previously been farmed, over to grazing or pastureland for cattle and sheep. A tax on the export of raw wool had provided the primary collateral used by Edward III for borrowing funds to finance his military activities in the earlier stages of the Hundred Years' War, since wool was a chief export item. (Unwin, 142) After an immediate depression following the Black Death, which incidentally was preceded by the collapse of the financial houses of the Bardi and Peruzzi, the chief creditors of the king, exports of raw wool recovered to almost their previous level. At the same time the export of manufactured cloth rose very rapidly. (Postan and Rich, 416)

The wool trade had always been profitable, thus eventual development of a technology for the finishing of cloth was a natural step. The king had promoted the increased manufacture of wool, and this production found a ready market. Pastoral pursuits required less labor than farming. Because of this there was a corresponding increase in the incidence of enclosures (the fencing of land with hedges or walls to provide pastureland) which is termed a Natural result of the Black Death." (Warner, 107)

Seebohm asks, rhetorically, "How is it that England, unlike almost every other country in Europe, is divided by hedgerows into separate fields?"( part I, 149) He cites three reasons for this observation. The plague, and resulting demographic deficit, is the first. His second observation is the migra-tion of serfs to-the cities to participate in the emerging cloth industry, as well as other pursuits. The third reason he states is the resulting enclosure of land due to these events. (part II, 276-277)

Edward III had been very energetic in his efforts to aid in the growth of the English cloth industry, which was one reason for the Act of 1377. This act prohibited the export of wool and the importation of foreign cloth. These measures were not intended to be permanent, but were followed by an invitation to foreign cloth makers to settle in England. (Unwin, 187)

"At that moment a whole year's wool supply was rapid-ly accumulating in the ports. The King's war plan entirely depended upon this wool paying a high export duty, and secur-ing a monopoly price in the foreign market. . . .for such a disposal of the wool as would secure a maximum of diplo-matic and fiscal result."

In this way he aided in turning England into a large-scale manufacturer rather than merely a producer of raw material. The plague had temporarily interrupted the wool trade, thus destroying the system of financing employed by the crown. Edward borrowed from merchants to whom he had promised revenues from the duties on wool shipments. This, combined with the problems caused by the labor shortage, led to parliamentary insistence on the Ordinance of the Staple, 1353.

The Ordinance of the Staple abolished the foreign wool staple and established a new staple in fifteen cities in England, Ireland and Wales. English merchants were forbidden to engage in foreign trade, while foreign merchants were free to trade where they pleased. The ordinance did not have the effect desired--to spread the profits of the wool trade among Englishmen--because alien middlemen still held the upper hand in the field, and by 1360 commons was urged to uphold a system of free trade. (McKisack, 350-353)

Once the cloth industry was fully established the crown was able to tax it, but this was done with care so as not to destroy the competitiveness of English exports. (Johnson, 145-147) The production of cloth had been aided by technical developments, which made it possible to switch from manpower to waterpower for the process of fulling the wool. Importation of foreign made woolens nearly stopped as the English came to prefer their own during the course of the fourteenth-century. (Postan and Rich, 416-417)

The Black Death did not start completely new economic trends. It acted, as a force to intensify and speed up changes which had already become apparent. The increasing price of labor services did not abate until about 1370. (Darby, 197) The pestilence of 1361 had finally dissolved the resistance to increases in wage-rates. There were three basic changes emphasized by the plague: the decline of "high farming," the growth of peasant farming and enclosure. (Ibid., 199, 201) One must also add to this list the growth and development of the English cloth industry, which drew many workers to the towns and cities. These foci were to become the centers of the emerging industrial life of England.