jay chowp - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by jay chowp

Research paper thumbnail of Before and After the Black Death: Money, Prices, and Wages in Fourteenth-Century England

by John H. Munro: University of Toronto One of the most common myths in European economic history... more by John H. Munro: University of Toronto One of the most common myths in European economic history, and indeed in Economics itself, is that the Black Death of 1347-48, followed by other waves of bubonic plague, led to an abrupt rise in real wages, for both agricultural labourers and urban artisans -one that led to the so-called 'Golden Age of the English Labourer', lasting until the early 16 th century. While there is no doubt that real-wages in mid-to late-15 th century England did reach a peak far higher than that ever achieved in past centuries, real wages in England did not, in fact, rise in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death. In southern England, real wages of building craftsmen (rural and urban), having plummeted with the natural disaster of the Great Famine (1315-21), thereafter rose to a new peak in 1336-40. But then their real wages fell during the 1340s, and continued their decline after the onslaught of the Black Death, indeed into the 1360s. Not until the later 1370s -almost thirty years after the Black Death -did real wages finally recover and then rapidly surpass the peak achieved in the late 1330s. Thereafter, the rise in real wages was more or less continuous, though at generally slower rates, during the 15 th century, reaching a peak in 1476-80 -at a level not thereafter surpassed until 1886-90, by the usual methods of calculating real wages with index numbers: i.e., by NWI/CPI = RWI [nominal wage index divided by the consumer price index equals the real wage index].

Research paper thumbnail of Before and After the Black Death: Money, Prices, and Wages in Fourteenth-Century England

by John H. Munro: University of Toronto One of the most common myths in European economic history... more by John H. Munro: University of Toronto One of the most common myths in European economic history, and indeed in Economics itself, is that the Black Death of 1347-48, followed by other waves of bubonic plague, led to an abrupt rise in real wages, for both agricultural labourers and urban artisans -one that led to the so-called 'Golden Age of the English Labourer', lasting until the early 16 th century. While there is no doubt that real-wages in mid-to late-15 th century England did reach a peak far higher than that ever achieved in past centuries, real wages in England did not, in fact, rise in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death. In southern England, real wages of building craftsmen (rural and urban), having plummeted with the natural disaster of the Great Famine (1315-21), thereafter rose to a new peak in 1336-40. But then their real wages fell during the 1340s, and continued their decline after the onslaught of the Black Death, indeed into the 1360s. Not until the later 1370s -almost thirty years after the Black Death -did real wages finally recover and then rapidly surpass the peak achieved in the late 1330s. Thereafter, the rise in real wages was more or less continuous, though at generally slower rates, during the 15 th century, reaching a peak in 1476-80 -at a level not thereafter surpassed until 1886-90, by the usual methods of calculating real wages with index numbers: i.e., by NWI/CPI = RWI [nominal wage index divided by the consumer price index equals the real wage index].