ABSTRACT
Overall, the English manorial economy and system survived the Black Death. It is even possible to consider the initial plague as a positive purgative, arguing that the plague served as a quasi-Malthusian check on the burgeoning English population. With the tenantry devastated, the previously landless and land-poor were able to take up the vacant holdings, removing many from the constant threat of starvation. Despite fears over rising wages in all sectors that resulted in the Ordinance and Statute of Labourers, seigniorial incomes did not suffer significantly, and many estates resumed functioning normally only a short time after the plague. Plentiful land and an increased demand for labor led to an age of prosperity for the peasantry, and Bridbury deemed the period immediately following the first outbreak of plague an “Indian summer” for both lords and tenants (584). The demand for land remained high, despite increasing entry fines, and so the land market remained favorable to the lords (Razi 1980, 110–112). As Hatcher pointed out, “[o]ne of the most striking features of the thirty and more years following 1348 was the resilience that the agrarian economy displayed in the face of recurrent plague” (1977, 32). These sentiments are equally applicable to the English populace.
