Practice question · True or false
Real wages for ordinary workers in England rose substantially in the century after the Black Death.
Hints
- Consider what happens to the price of labour when a third or more of the workforce dies.
- Governments legislated against the rise, which is evidence that it was happening.
Show the answer
True
Why
True. Fewer workers competing for more land pushed wages up and rents down; diets improved measurably. The Ordinance and Statute of Labourers of 1349 and 1351 tried to fix wages at pre-plague levels and largely failed, which is itself the best evidence of the pressure.
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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