Effects Of The Black Plague On Medieval Europe

The Black Plague and its Economic Effects on Medieval Europe
The Middle Ages is often a time that is mislabeled. Some consider it to be a time of darkness and disorder. Others, specifically literary people, make it seem like a beautiful time of chivalry and knights who saved distressed maidens. Author Jeffrey L. Forgeng writes, “We are inclined today to romanticize the Middle Ages.” The Middle Ages was truly a time of great change for Europeans. It can be characterized by advancements in architecture and art, a strong religious following, and advancements in social and economic systems. One of the most discussed events during this period of time was the Black Plague. This pestilence devastated Europe but it can also be argued that it
had some positive consequences. In this paper we will explore how the Black Death affected the economy of the time and how this altered the shape of European society.
Researchers have found that the plague, known as the Black Death, can be traced as far as the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. From this point it spread all over, including China. China during this time period was a center for many trade routes (The Silk Road). This assisted the plague in its spread because merchants traveling by land and sea could contract the disease or carry it with them for many miles before they realized they were sick. By this point they would have already come in contact with many people. It is believed that the Black Plague came to Europe via a trade route across the Black Sea. It was from here that it reached Sicily in October of 1347.
When the trading ships reached Sicily the locals came to greet them. What they found were near empty ships with a few seriously sick people. They tried to send the ships away but as soon as they ported the disease was free to run rampant in Europe.
In Europe during what is known as the High Middle Ages (1000-1300) there was a very large leap in population size.
What was once a continent of 38 million people almost doubled to 74 million people. This aided the speed with which the disease spread. The large population growth, especially in cities, as well as the lack of sanitation created the perfect breeding ground for the sickness. People in the cities had no real sewage system. They would just throw their waste into the streets. Animals were very common in the cities as well. They would walk around, sometimes unattended, and spread their waste. Sometimes the streets would flood and the human and animal waste would mix and contaminate the drinking water. A contemporary of the time period wrote, “He who lives amidst the stench no longer perceives it; he must depart and return for the stench to affect him.” The people of the time had very little understanding about diseases and how they were spread.
These disgusting conditions, although not a good environment to foster human life, lead to an increased rat population. On the skin of these rats were fleas. These fleas would bite the rats and become carriers of the Black Plague. Do to the conditions in which these people lived they were probably always very close to a rat. The fleas from the rats would get on humans and bite them, passing on the
bacteria.
The first signs of sickness were a high fever, fatigue, and aching. These signs were typical of an infection. Eventually the infected person would develop large swellings on the lymph nodes of the neck, armpits, and groin. These were also known as buboes, giving the pestilence its name- Bubonic plague. These swellings could grow about the size of an apple and would fill with blood. This caused them to turn black and eventually burst. They were extremely painful. An infected person would typically only live about one week after their symptoms started. Any person who became exposed to the fluids of the dead was also at risk of contracting the disease because it was passed by their bodily fluids.
This disease ran rampant in Europe. Those who saw what it did to their neighbors fled to other areas trying to escape it. Unfortunately, because they did not know what was causing it, there were no precautions taken and this just increased the infected areas. People most commonly believed that they were being punished by God. They did not think of the disease as being something passed person to person but rather it was something they were selectively given to atone for their sins. This started a schism of religion. Some people believed that they were all going to die anyways so they began indulging in all of life’s sins. Others, known as Flagellants, turned to public displays of self flogging in an attempt to please their angry God.
By 1348 the plague had spread from Italy to half of Spain and France, down the coast of Dalmatia, and into Germany as well as areas of Africa and the Middle East. By 1350 the disease had ran its course throughout Europe. During this time period it effectively killed off 24 million people, or about one third of the population in Europe.
Prior to this sickness Medieval Europe’s social system was organized around feudalism. Feudalism was a system where lords each had their own estates, laws, and militaries. There was a king but he had little power and was usually just a figurehead. Lords gave fiefs, or land, to their serfs as well as the promise of protection. These people in turn worked for the lord and paid taxes to them. The plague killed off so many Europeans that this system could no longer sustain itself.
Serfs had made up a majority of the population before the plague and so they were also the social class who suffered the most casualties. Those who were not killed on their estates often ran away, trying to escape the disease. This left the land, which was once a source of wealth in Europe, completely worthless. Starvation started to become an issue because with no one to work the lands food could not grow. What little food that was available was in very high demand. This lead to inflation. This also created a high demand for workers. This allowed those few serfs who were still living to charge a higher wage for their services. Historic Economist, David Routt writes, “Wages in England rose from twelve to twenty—eight percent from the 1340s to the 1350s and twenty to forty percent from the 1340s to the 1360s.” They no longer were under the control of the nobility and so the nobility began to decline while the laborers began to rise. This began the development of a new social class, the middle class.
In 1351 the nobles of the land tried to put an end to this social upheaval by passing a law called the Statute of Laborers. The law stated that, “No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346. No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346. No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.” However, the creation of this law did not have the desired effect of suppressing the lower class. Instead it just made them even more angry about the social injustice. Not only did they demand higher wages but they also were able to be more selective about the work that they would do.
The serfs were becoming frustrated with the little respect they were getting.
This began a series of peasant revolts. 1358 marked the first revolt. It was called the French Jacquerie revolt because the peasants were often referred to as Jacques. The Black Death as well as the peasant revolts, and ultimately the death of feudalism all occurred during the time known as the One Hundred Years War (1337-1453). During this first peasant revolt the French nobility was already struggling because of the war. One of the more important nobles, king John the second, had been taken captive which forced an Anglo-Saxon true to be made. This brought English mercenaries to the French countryside. The French nobility ordered more more from the peasants in order to increase their protection. This anger the peasants who already felt that they were being taken advantage of by the nobility. In response to this they began to fight back. As a disorganized group the rose up and began to invade castles. They killed all of the nobility that they could. However, because they were unorganized and did not have sufficient weapons they were quickly suppressed by other
nobility.
The second known revolt was the English Peasant's Rebellion in 1381. In 1377 the king passed away and his throne was overtaken by his grandson, Richard the second, who was only ten years old at the time. He was not yet prepared to rule and so most of his power lay with his uncle, John of Gaunt. He decided because the nobles were struggling, their accounts drained by the Hundred Years War,to once again raise the poll taxes. The people, who already hated the barons, were furious about this. They began to rise up, starting in Essex, and destroy the manors that the nobles lived as well as the churches.

Medieval historians believe that if the Black Plague had never come to Europe inevitably the social and economic changes would still have occurred. The plague simply worked as a catalyst to speed everything up. The people still would have demanded more rights from the nobility. The nobility would have likely resisted and it would’ve taken a lot more time for the serfs to gain momentum. The Black Death succeeded in killing millions of people during the Middle Ages. At first glance this can seem horrific and upsetting, however looking from the perspective of a historian the plague had some very positive outcomes. The movement from feudalism and the growth of a new social class, the middle class,