ES - Good Source for Economics of the Black Death

[Todd Marsh]

I'd start with "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman.  It is about the 14th
century in general, and includes a good analysis of the great plague.  For
those of you watching at home, more than a third of the population from
India to Iceland died during the plague of 1348-1350.

For more detailed economic analysis, see "The Great Wave" by David Fischer.
He tracks comodity prices from 1200 to the present, and identifies periods
of great change and relative stability. He says:
"This great depopulation had many economic consequences. The price of food
rose sharply during the epidemic years, then began to fall very rapidly as
there were fewer mouths to feed.  At the same time prices of manufactured
foods tended to rise, partly because artisans and craftsmen could demand
higher wages."
"In the period from 1314 to 1348, ...the people of Europe suffered through
the darkest moment in their history: a terrible time of starvation and
pestilence, insurrection and war, persecution and political chaos. This was
more than merely the collapse of the medieval economy. It was the death of
medieval civilization."

This doesn't sound like an increase in the standard of living to me.  The
real improvement didn't happen until the 16th century.

Don Llywelyn Gruffydd



-----Original Message-----
I'm looking for a good book on the economic changes wrought by the Bubonic
Plague outbreak in Europe. Specifically, I'm looking for information on the
increase in standard of living following the plague.

--
--Sfi Mordehai ben Yosef Yitzhak, Aka Matthew G. Saroff


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