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The Black Deaths Affect on Labor

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The Black Deaths Affect on Labor
The Black Deaths Affect on Labor

The Black Death caused a dramatic affect on labor supply and labor demand, with the loss of somewhere near 50% of the population of western Europe most places had a lack of labor available. Farms were left un-manned and there for fell in to disrepair. Labor was hit hard with loss of life so lords had no one to cut trees, hunt animals for food and skins, and no tenants to pay rent, or taxes for the use of a lord’s property. I do not know if I can pin point one aspect that was affected any more than any other was, with the plague not being choosy skilled members of all varieties of labor positions were lost during that time in history. The demand for labor would have went to the right severely on a chart indicating a steep rise in demand and the supply of labor would have moved sharply to the left indicating a dramatic fall in available labor. Most of a laborers time was spent looking for a place unaffected by the plague to move their family too so even those available for work were not doing it. The trade of goods would have also been severely affected because kingdoms would close their gates to merchants for fear of bringing the plague with them, as well as the death of many merchants as well.
The factors that effected the supply and demand for labor would literally be the loss of so much life, with so many dying the skilled artisans and craftsman would be hard pressed to do the job of the any with only the few. Suppliers would not have the man power to collect and distribute inputs needed to output products. The nobles would not have the man power needed to harness the entirety of their land so loss of revenue would occur. Overall in an economic sense I feel the Black Death would have been a disaster for many trades not just one or

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