Complete the account of the divergent outcomes of the plague.
In western Europe labour scarcity pushed wages ______ and rents down. East of the ______, lords responded to the same scarcity by binding tenants more tightly, in the process known as the second ______. Robert Brenner argued the difference lay in the balance of ______ power rather than in demography alone.
Word bank: up · Elbe · serfdom · class · down · Danube
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- The two regions moved in opposite directions from the same cause.
- The river conventionally used to mark the divide runs through northern Germany.
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In western Europe labour scarcity pushed wages up and rents down. East of the Elbe, lords responded to the same scarcity by binding tenants more tightly, in the process known as the second serfdom. Robert Brenner argued the difference lay in the balance of class power rather than in demography alone.
The Elbe line is a convention rather than a wall, and the contrast is a tendency rather than a rule, but it is sharp enough that any explanation of the late medieval economy has to account for it, which is precisely what a one-variable model cannot do.
Practise The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: a Time of Crisis?
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More questions on The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: a Time of Crisis?
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