Monetary Movements and Market Structure—Forces for Contraction in Fourteenth-and Fifteenth-Century England

That the Black Death of 1348–1349 disrupted the economies of Europe during the later middle ages is not open to doubt. That the economic effects of the plague varied from sector to sector is perhaps equally indubitable. The diversity of its impact upon various economic sectors reveals itself both in contemporary evidence and in the fiery controversies generated by modern economic historians, each basing his argument on conflicting statistics or inferences drawn, often without careful regard, from disparate sectors. It is thus not accidental that even the most cursory review of the literature concerning the period after the plague will unearth a surprising lack of agreement among the specialists.