Black Death and Europe's Economy: Foundation of the Modern Labour Movement?

When you think about the advancement of workers’ rights in Europe, alongside the general lifestyle improvements that have occurred for the poorest in society in the developed world, your mind will likely go towards events that have occurred within the last 150 years. Perhaps your mind will go to the rapid advancement of the Labour Movement in early 20th century England, culminating in a slew of pro-worker policies, first under various Liberal Governments, and then under the postwar Labour Party of Clement Atlee, from which the National Health Service among other things was born. Perhaps you would cast your mind back a bit further to Otto Von Bismarck’s government in the newly unified German Empire of the late 19th century, and his creation of the forebearer of the modern European welfare state. But what you may not know is that the foundation for these movements may have had a much older inspiration, which you might not immediately associate with issues of labour economics at all. One which took place, not 100 or 200 years ago, but more than six centuries prior to where we are today. 

 

The Black Death, a plague outbreak which took place across two decades in 14th century Europe, was perhaps the most devastating pound-for-pound disaster that this continent has ever seen. Brought upon by a particularly fatal strain of the Bubonic Virus, the rapid spread led to approximately 30-50% of the entire European population at the time being wiped out, representing tens of millions of deaths. Although the humanitarian effects of this were obviously cataclysmic, the demographic changes brought upon by this massive level of population reduction provide us a fascinating insight into the economic implications of this change on the labour market, and the impact of bargaining power in determining factor incomes for agents within an economy. As a result, we can ascertain how the conditions brought upon by the Plague are simulated through the organisation of workers in the modern age through the function of trade unions and cooperatives, and perhaps make a clear connection between these two immensely far apart transformations.

 

When the devastating impacts of the Plague unfolded, most of Europe operated under feudal systems, in which peasants were essentially slaves, or ‘serfs’, of the nobility who owned them. However, with extreme labour shortages brought about by the population reduction, the balance of power between farmers and their lords shifted. Without as many workers available to tend to the land, the value of an individual peasant correspondingly rose, as the ability to find alternatives reduced. Even prior to the existence of anything resembling a market system, the principle of supply and demand still applied, with a leftward shift of supply meaning that the ‘bosses’ of those working in the agricultural sector were willing to offer more to ensure they retained enough manpower to meet their required agricultural output. 

 

In England, it can be clearly seen how the economic implications of the Plague for surviving workers went hand in hand with political upheaval, and the new opportunities that were offered for organisation. While wages increased between 150-200% for the average surviving peasant, an increase of about two pence a day, this was not the ceiling of the Black Death’s impacts on English society. Specifically, with the new leverage agricultural workers had, they were emboldened to demand greater personal freedoms, which culminated especially potently in the Peasants’ Revolt under Wat Tyler. This was after the failure of the Crown to retain its previous level of structural dominance over the peasant class, with the failure of the Ordinance of Labourers, an attempt to freeze wages in order to counteract the upward pressure, being a key contribution towards widespread discontent.

 

Although the direct objective of overthrowing the Crown was not achieved, the remarkable threat posed by the situation shook the administrative power, who subsequently saw that serfdom as a political construct be rolled back over the next decades, albeit this was also affected by changing economic incentives. Additionally, the natural economic shifts seen by the boost in bargaining power labours now enjoyed were not seriously inhibited as had been planned in the previous Ordinance, which was concluded definitively after the failure of the Statute of Labourers in 1351. The rise in wages of about three times by the end of the century, also coincided with a reduction in land usage as much of the previously arable areas were abandoned - this in turn allowed for a boost in productivity as methods shifted away from labour-intensive processes towards pastoral farming, allowing for a reduction in grain-prices of 10-20% in some regions. With these price inputs declining, consumption shot up over the course of the century, and for the first time, peasants had access to more meat, better housing, and even land ownership in some cases. The foundation of a wage-based economy was created, and temporarily, a decrease in extreme inequality had been achieved.

 

It is not hard to see how the relative improvements brought about by the fallout of the Plague could inspire the people who were seeking to make hay from the increase in capital spurred by the industrial revolution to facilitate lifestyle improvements for the new type of labourer that existed at the turn of the 20th century - rising wages, cheaper consumer goods, and a reduction in inequality were indeed a representative basket of what the trade unionist movement sought to achieve. And while the modern day labour movement did not release a plague to achieve their aims, they were also benefitted by a fall in labour supply sparked by the Spanish Flu, and two World Wars. Similarly, in restricting labour through general strikes, and collective organisation for consumer protections, a steep increase in wages and consumption from the working classes of Europe could be observed once more in the 20th century as so in the 14th. 

 

Even if the method of deliverance differed, the fundamental economic conditions pursued in the labour movement are replicated. And so, we find that even natural events hundreds of years ago can clearly demonstrate the principles behind modern day structures and institutions when it comes to the organisation of labour today.

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References:

1. Cartwright, M., & Böcklin, A. (2025). Black death. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Black_Death/

2. Medievalists.net. (2016, August 30). Before and after the Black Death: money, prices, and wages in fourteenth-century England. https://www.medievalists.net/2010/08/before-and-after-the-black-death-money-prices-and-wages-in-fourteenth-century-england/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

3. DeWitte SN (2014) Mortality Risk and Survival in the Aftermath of the Medieval Black Death. PLoS ONE 9(5): e96513. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096513

4. Wat Tyler and the Peasants revolt. (2024, April 30). Historic UK. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Wat-Tyler-the-Peasants-Revolt/

5. Internet History Sourcebooks project. (n.d.). https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/seth/statute-labourers.asp

6. Before and after the Black Death: money, prices, and wages in fourteenth-century England  Munich Personal RePEc Archive. (n.d.). https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/15748/

7. Barzun, J. and Mayne, R.J. (1999). History of Europe | Summary, Wars, Map, Ideas, & Colonialism. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-rise-of-organized-labor-and-mass-protests.