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https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-black-death-helped-bring-prosperity-to-europe/

There's always an upside.....

Quote from: Imperial Dave on December 28, 2024, 06:49:49 PMhttps://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-black-death-helped-bring-prosperity-to-europe/

There's always an upside.....

Certainly it let to a lot higher mobility of rural labour and an increase in the wages that could be demanded, and that helped make those engaged in agriculture 'more professional' in their attitude. So yes it did boost prosperity.
Also with the cut in population fewer people were scraping a living on marginal land, which tended to revert to grazing or even abandoned

The Thanos effect....

I am not signing up to read this one, I thought this was orthodoxy anyway as labour was now in great demand could call a few shots and move to better conditions.

Quote from: Ian61 on December 28, 2024, 10:22:00 PMI thought this was orthodoxy anyway as labour was now in great demand could call a few shots and move to better conditions.

Yes, but it was, at least in England, more complicated. Yeoman who survived found they were in a position to advance themselves by buying up land of their less fortunate neighbours too. Also, the failure of government attempts at wage control - necessity drove land owners to pay illegally high wages because no-one would work for the legal ones.

Comparing the Black Death with Covid, which has been blamed for one or more of rampant price inflation, economic impoverishment, mass deterioration of mental health and record levels of migration into several countries.

They just don't make plagues like they used to...

 

Ahhhh....nostalgia ain't what it used to be