Economic Legislation

Status Quo

After the first surge of death the Medieval governments were concerned about the growing power of Labor. In order to address this, The Statue of Laborers was introduced. It was created in England in 1348, only a year after the arrival of the plague in Europe, and attempted to fix wages at the pre-plague levels found in 1345. The document shown is an excerpt from the French Statute of Laborers created in 1351 that tried to accomplish the same thing.

Significance

Shows one of the ways that the upper-class attempted to maintain their power and influence during the dramatic cultural and economic shifts brought about by the Black Death. It also shows that the government knew the economic impact of a decreased labor force and provides foreshadowing for the increased bargaining power of labor force after the Black Death.