TY - JOUR
AU - Bailey, Mark
AB -  medieval economy but T he fortunes of the Englishdistinct phases.terms,are conventionally, was crudely, divided into two In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the economy grew in aggregate and this growth reflected in the expansion of population, settlement, commercial activity, and the general increase in rents and prices. In contrast, rents and prices fell in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and settlement, population, and the volume of commercial activity all contracted. This marked contrast in economic fortunes poses a significant and apparently inscrutable question: when did the change first occur and why? Most obviously, was the Black Death of 1348-9 the turning point? Or was the economy already exhibiting clear signs of a decisive change in the 50 or so years before the Black Death, so that the plague itself was merely an accelerator of trends already in motion? There is no doubting that the years between c. 1290 and 1348 were exceptional. Levels of medieval population and commercial activity peaked at some point in this period, while mean size of holdings and real wages fell to their lowest level.1 Simultaneously, the economy suffered a series of extreme and onerous ‘shocks’, principally a succession of severe harvest failures, 
TI - Peasant Welfare in England, 1290‐1348
JF - Economic History Review
DO - 10.1111/1468-0289.00089
DA - 1998-05-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/peasant-welfare-in-england-1290-1348-GXd04seVNS
SP - 223
VL - 51
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -