IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v71y2018i4p1048-1072.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Great Famine in the county of Flanders (1315–17): the complex interaction between weather, warfare, and property rights

Author

Listed:
  • Sam Geens

Abstract

The exceptional weather conditions and associated harvest failures of 1315–17 marked the beginning of the worst subsistence crisis in European history. Until now, historians have mainly viewed the Great Famine, and medieval famines in general, through theoretical models of the larger fourteenth‐century crisis. However, this article suggests that this approach is flawed and instead applies recent theories on contemporary famines to the crisis of 1315–17 in the county of Flanders. This new perspective not only leads to a re‐examination of existing explanations, such as the role of warfare, but also reveals the importance of property rights in entitlement to food: the power of elites, the relative number of large‐scale landowners, and the structure of household income all influenced peasants’ degree of vulnerability.

Suggested Citation

  • Sam Geens, 2018. "The Great Famine in the county of Flanders (1315–17): the complex interaction between weather, warfare, and property rights," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1048-1072, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:71:y:2018:i:4:p:1048-1072
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12605
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ehr.12605?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harry Kitsikopoulos, 2000. "Standards of living and capital formation in pre-plague England: a peasant budget model," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 53(2), pages 237-261, May.
    2. Bruce M. S. Campbell, 2010. "Nature as historical protagonist: environment and society in pre‐industrial England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(2), pages 281-314, May.
    3. Stephen Devereux, 2001. "Sen's Entitlement Approach: Critiques and Counter-critiques," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 245-263.
    4. Nils Hybel, 2002. "The grain trade in northern Europe before 1350[Northern E]," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 55(2), pages 219-247, May.
    5. Corbett, Jane, 1988. "Famine and household coping strategies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 1099-1112, September.
    6. Buchanan Sharp, 2013. "Royal paternalism and the moral economy in the reign of E dward II : the response to the G reat F amine," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(2), pages 628-647, May.
    7. Spufford,Peter, 1989. "Money and its Use in Medieval Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521375900, October.
    8. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "Manors and Markets: Economy and Society in the Low Countries 500-1600," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198783756, December.
    9. Eric B. Schneider, 2011. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Yield-Raising Strategies in Medieval England: An Econometric Approach," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _090, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. M. M. Postan & J. Titow, 1959. "Heriots And Prices On Winchester Manors," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 11(3), pages 392-411, April.
    11. Eric B. Schneider, 2011. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Yield-Raising Strategies in Medieval England: An Econometric Approach," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _090, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    12. Mavis Mate, 1975. "High Prices in Early Fourteenth-Century England: Causes and Consequences'," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 28(1), pages 1-16, February.
    13. Daniel Maxwell & Keith Wiebe, 1999. "Land Tenure and Food Security: Exploring Dynamic Linkages," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 825-849, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miikka Voutilainen, 2022. "Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 503-529, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eric B. Schneider, 2014. "Prices and production: agricultural supply response in fourteenth-century England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 66-91, February.
    2. Eric B. Schneider, 2014. "Prices and production: agricultural supply response in fourteenth-century England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 66-91, February.
    3. Schneider, Eric B., 2013. "Real wages and the family: Adjusting real wages to changing demography in pre-modern England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 99-115.
    4. Gwendoline Promsopha, 2018. "Risk†Coping, Land Tenure And Land Markets: An Overview Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 176-193, February.
    5. Aled Davies, 2012. "The Evolution of British Monetarism: 1968-1979," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _104, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    6. Schneider, Eric B., 2013. "Real wages and the family: Adjusting real wages to changing demography in pre-modern England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 99-115.
    7. Aled Davies, 2012. "The Evolution of British Monetarism: 1968-1979," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _104, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. John Oldland, 2014. "Wool and cloth production in late medieval and early Tudor England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 25-47, February.
    9. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    10. Gasper, D.R., 2007. "Problem- and policy-analysis for human development," ISS Working Papers - General Series 18743, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    11. Ruben, Ruerd & Pender, John, 2004. "Rural diversity and heterogeneity in less-favoured areas: the quest for policy targeting," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 303-320, August.
    12. Qing Pei & David D Zhang & Harry F Lee & Guodong Li, 2014. "Climate Change and Macro-Economic Cycles in Pre-Industrial Europe," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-8, February.
    13. Palma, Nuno, 2018. "Money and modernization in early modern England," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 231-261, December.
    14. Michael D. Bordo & William Roberds, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: An Old Tale with a New Chapter," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2022-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    15. Maxwell, Daniel & Ahiadeke, Clement & Levin, Carol & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Zakariah, Sawudatu & Lamptey, Grace Mary, 1999. "Alternative food-security indicators: revisiting the frequency and severity of 'coping strategies'," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 411-429, August.
    16. Nicola Ansell & Elsbeth Robson & Flora Hajdu & Lorraine van Blerk & Lucy Chipeta, 2009. "The new variant famine hypothesis," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 9(3), pages 187-207, July.
    17. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133.
    18. De Vijlder, Nicolas, 2012. "A macroeconomic analysis of the land market in the count of Flanders and the duchy of Brabant. (fifteenth and sixteenth century)," MPRA Paper 39283, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Tata Ngome, Precillia I. & Shackleton, Charlie & Degrande, Ann & Nossi, Eric Joel & Ngome, Francis, 2019. "Assessing household food insecurity experience in the context of deforestation in Cameroon," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 57-65.
    20. Nillesen, Eleonora & Verwim, Philip, 2010. "A Phoenix in Flames? Portfolio Choice and Violence in Civil War in Rural Burundi," WIDER Working Paper Series 044, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:71:y:2018:i:4:p:1048-1072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.