what effect did the black death have on the economy of Europe during the middle ages?

Answer 1

After the problem of burying the dead in plague pits was over, people tried to get back to normality. But life was never the same again. The decreased population meant a shortage of labour and workmen demanded and received pay increases. The government of Edward III tried to cap pay increases by an Act of Parliament, The Statute of Labourers, the first government attempt to control the economy. Workmen who demanded too much were placed in the stocks, that is trapped in a wooden gadget for a day, and employers who paid over the odds were fined. The Act was largely unsuccessful as employers coaxed workers from other employers, with promises abundant pay increases, and wages kept on rising. One recorded case shows that a joiner who built the stocks for the punishment of greedy workers was paid three times the legal rate for his labour.

The government also passed The Sumptuary Act of 1367, making it illegal for the lower classes to spend their new wealth on new apparel of ermine or silk. Only the aristocracy and some senior gentlefolk were allowed to wear these items. Today when barristers are raised to the rank of Queen’s Council, they are said to ‘take silk’, indicating their elevation in status. The Act has never been repealed, so if you wear silk, and if any of Edward III’s commissioners are still alive, you could get put in the stocks!

By the reign of Richard II, the economy had settled down and landowners switched from labour intensive methods, grain production, to low labour processes, particularly sheep farming. Increased wool production boosted the economy and became the nation’s chief export, making England a major economic power.

Answer 2

It forced a huge change to the economy and shifted the balance towards the ordinary peasantry for the first time.

There were so few people left that there was no-one to carry out tasks as important as harvesting.

Labourers found themselves in a far stronger position, for the first time being able to charge better rates for their services, and no longer being tied in liege to a particular lord and piece of land.

Answer 3

Huge impact, it killed at least 75 million people. That is between 1/3 and 2/3 of the entire european population.

Answer 4

the upward thrust in wealth and the upward thrust in jobs, skill people who've a competent acceptance or are midsection classification gets a job, and effectively 'upward thrust' the upward thrust in banking is to do with jobs, and money ect!

Answer 5

it spreaded across almost the whole empire killed like 75 million people