#english_history 

## The Black Death
In 1348, the plague had started spreading, and by 1349 had reached almost every part of Britain. 
Estimates suggest that $\frac{1}{3}$ of the population died, and fewer than 1 person in 10 who caught the plague managed to survive.
Whole villages disappreared, and some towns were almost completely deserted.

However, plague had killed sheep and other animals earlier in the century, exacerbating the food crisis.

## Impact
### Agriculture
In 1400, Britain's population was probably 2 million, enormously low comparing with [[Oridnary people in country and town in Early Middle Ages England#^792726|1300]].
However, the plague epidemic helped mostly abolish serfdom: 
1. At the end of the 13th century the skyrocketing prices had led some landlords to stop paying workers for their labour, and to go back to serf labour.
2. After the Black Death there were few people to work so that they started asking for more money for their labour. The king tried to control wage increases but failed to do so.
These smaller farmers who rented the manorial lands slowly became a new class, known as the "**yeomen**" - an important part of the agricultural economy.

Although agricultural land production shrank, due to the decrease in popuplation those who survived enjoyed a greater share of the agricultural economy:
even for peasants life became more comfortable.

### Trade
Now the sine qua non of English trade was not simply wool but *finished cloth*.
This change was the natural result of the very high prices at which English wool was sold in Flanders by the end of the thirteenth century. Merchants then decided to buy wool in England and produce finished cloth for export.
Then the Flemish cloth industry collapsed during **1320-1360**, leading to a mass migration of Flemings to England. They were encouraged by Edward III, just like [[Feudalism after the Norman Conquest#^a18b24|William I did]].
The West Country, Wales, Yorkshire greatly benefitted from the change in clothmaking.