The Long-Term Impact of the Black Death on the Medieval...

The Long-term Impact of the Black Death on the Medieval Agriculture As one of the most severe plagues in human history, the Black Death was unprecedented in two ways: on one hand, it was undoubtedly a terrible nightmare, which swept the entire Europe and killed so many people; however, on the other hand, it was also a unique event that accelerated the process of European agricultural history. In years before the Black Death, the European agriculture was already in trouble. Agriculture has long been the foundation of economy and society, especially during the time as early as in the Middle Ages. As the foundation of agriculture, corn production was the most important agricultural activity at the time. However, corn production†¦show more content†¦The first and most direct impact was that it led to a serious shortage of agricultural labor. Human labor was one of the most important elements in agriculture, especially in the Middle Ages, when agricultural technique and devices hadn’t been well developed. The high mortality and the lasti ng depopulation during the Black Death â€Å"led to an acute shortage of labor in the countryside† (4) thus impairing the productivity. The depopulation was accompanied by a reduction of output. In Leicester in England, there was severe shortage of servants and laborers, and â€Å"many crops rotted unharvested in the fields† (5). In the village of Elkington in Northamptonshire, the number of taxpayers seems to have decreased due to depopulation during the period between 1377 and 1412(6); and â€Å"by the first decade of the fifteenth century, grain production levels between the Tyne and Tees appear to have been less than one-third their level of a century earlier.†(7) Other parts in Europe suffered just as much. In Spain, depopulated villages and rising wages suggested that the area cultivated with cereals and vines fell in the aftermath of the Black Death; in the area around Cambrai in France, grain productivity fell up to 50 percent between 1320 to 1370 and witnessed a further drop of 25 percent by the mid fifteen century.(8) The Black Death added to the misery of the human society in Medieval Euro pe, which had already suffered great losses during the GreatShow MoreRelatedEssay on Black Death with Wings of Light1479 Words   |  6 PagesAtishoo!/ We all fall down!† (Historic UK). Would anyone see through this happy melody and say that this song is about one of the deathliest plagues that ever struck mankind, the Black Death? This song describes the main symptom of the Black Death, which is the formation of infected black rings on skin. The Black Death is a disease that first arrived in Europe in 1347 through a ship with rats and fleas contaminated with Yersinia pestis bacteria. 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