The regulation of the rural market in waged labour in fourteenth-century England

This article reconstructs the size and organisation of the rural market in hired labour in fourteenth-century England, providing a comparative reference point for arrangements elsewhere in medieval Europe. Quantitative assessment of 1,445 manorial court sessions from six manors casts new light on th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inContinuity and change Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 137 - 162
Main Author Bailey, Mark
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.08.2023
Subjects
14th century
Capitalism
Courts
Epidemics
Historians
Intervention
Labor market
Legal system
Legislation
Manual workers
Middle Ages
Pandemics
Plague
Purchasing power
Regulation
Rural areas
Social change
Society
Wages & salaries
Wisdom
United Kingdom > UK
England
Europe
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Summary:This article reconstructs the size and organisation of the rural market in hired labour in fourteenth-century England, providing a comparative reference point for arrangements elsewhere in medieval Europe. Quantitative assessment of 1,445 manorial court sessions from six manors casts new light on the English labour market, which was larger and less regulated than previously assumed and the government's wide-ranging labour legislation in the wake of the Black Death was novel in its scale and provisions. Contrary to received wisdom, manorial authorities made few efforts to regulate labour. The older view had placed an over-reliance on the early work of W.O. Ault and had ignored the significance of nil returns. The reasons for the lack of regulation, and its implications for our understanding of the complex interaction between pandemics, labour markets, and legal responses are explored. Finally, the study illustrates how legal responses to pandemics can have inadvertent yet profound consequences.
ISSN:0268-4160
1469-218X
DOI:10.1017/S0268416023000188