In time life on the manor changed. As the centuries passed, the distinctions between villeins, cottars, bordars and others disappeared. Men were either free or they were villeins owing labour services to the lord of the manor. But as the towns grew and developed, many villeins fled from the villages and sought freedom in the towns. To gain their freedom they had to live for more than a year and a day without being caught.
The villeins who remained on the manors were often dissatisfied with their lot. Many of them wished to pay their rent in cash rather than in labour services. Many landlords came to the conclusion that it was better to get a fixed cash rent from their tenants rather than put up with a lower standard of work from unwilling peasants. By 1300 rents we
re being paid in cash on many manors and landlords hired farm workers to cultivate their land. In the middle of the fourteenth century a national disaster hit Britain. Bubonic plague spread from Asia and hundreds of thousands of people died. This was the Black Death and it is estimated that something like one third of the population died of the plague. Many villages lost their entire population whilst in others there were few survivors. Not surprisingly, there was an immediate shortage of labour to work the farms. Wages rose from one penny a day in 1346 to twopence a day in 1350. Just imagine what would happen today if wages doubled in the space of four years! At the same time food prices also rose and so did the cost of tools and clothes. Now at this time there were many peasants who still owed labour services to their lords. They wanted to have these labour services changed to cash rents and, as you read earlier, the lords of the manor were often agreeable to this new arrangement. But after the Black Death it was cheaper for the lords to receive payment in labour rather than in cash. So the peasants who were tied to the manor in this way had good cause to grumble. But at the same time peasants who were free to work for a wage were subjected to a new law which was passed in order to try and keep prices and wages down. This was the Statute of Labourers which was enacted in 1349.
Labourers were to receive only the wages they had been accustomed to receive two years earlier in 1347. Employers were not to pay them more than the old wage and the same rule applied to the skilled craftsmen in towns such as the carpenters, masons and smiths. Innkeepers and foodsellers were required to sell their goods at a reasonable price and not to make excessive profits.
Discuss all these questions on the History Forum
1. What is the difference between making it illegal for labourers and craftsmen to take higher wages and instructing food and drink retailers to sell at a reasonable price?
2. What other reasons might they have had for escaping from the villages?
3. What do you think were the other attractions of town life?
England History : Farming in the Later Middle Ages written by Monique Barb for FamousWhy.com
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