The information presented in this graph shows the rela-
tionship of agricultural prices, industrial wages and
prices, and population in the century and a half following
the Black Death. After dramatic rises during the crises of
1315–17 and in the decade of the 1360s, agricultural
prices remained fairly steady until the 1530s. The graph
is much simplified, and the index numbers are based on
prices, wages, and population in 1300.Source: E. Perroy, “Les crises du XIVe siècle,” Annales,vol. 4 (1949):
pp. 167–82, as adapted in B. H. Slicher van Bath, The Agrarian History of
Western Europe, A.D. 500–1800,trans. Olive Ordish (London: Edward
Arnold, 1963), p. 139.2000
1300 1550(1300 = 100)1350 1400 1450 1500
Index numbers of agricultural prices15010050Index numbers of industrial prices and wages
Index numbers of English population figuresPlague, War, and Social Change in the “Long”Fourteenth Century 217church on the theory that its increasing interest in secu-
lar affairs had provoked divine retribution. Some have
argued that the plague created a genuine and long-
lasting demand for spiritual renewal. However, other,
more sinister results were evident as well. In parts of
Germany whole communities of Jews were burned alive
because they were thought to have spread the disease
by poisoning wells.
The Economic Consequences of the Black Death
The psychological effects of the Black Death would
have a profound impact on religious belief, but its ma-
terial consequences were equally dramatic (see table
12.2). Demographic collapse relieved pressure on the
land. Food prices dropped immediately. Land values
and rents followed close behind, declining by 30 to 40
percent in most parts of Europe between 1350 and
- For landholders, both lay and religious, this was a
serious loss; for ordinary men and women, it was a
windfall. Stunned by the horror they had experienced,
the survivors found not only that food was cheaper and
land more abundant, but also that most of them had in-
herited varying amounts of property from their dead
relatives.
The delicate ecological balance of the thirteenth
century no longer existed. Acreage could be diverted to
pursuits that were less efficient in purely nutritional
terms, but more profitable and less labor intensive.
Fields were converted to pasture for grazing sheep and
cattle. Marginal lands in Germany and elsewhere re-
verted to forest where hogs could root at will and where
the next generation of peasants could presumably find
Illustration 12.1
The Burial of Plague Victims at
Tournai, 1349.Tournai is located in
what is now Belgium. Similar scenes of
mass burial were replayed throughout
Europe during the plague years. As the
death toll increased, attempts to provide
coffins and individual funerals had to be
abandoned. The overwhelmed survivors
could only dump the bodies in mass
graves.TABLE 12.2Population, Prices, and Wages in England,
1300–1500