ABSTRACT
The history of labour in the Middle Ages began with a far more terrible shock than that which marked the end of this long period. The latter was only an accident of growth, whereas the former very nearly brought about a complete stop in the march of civilization. The barbarian invasions let loose a real disaster. In two hundred years the ordered edifice of the Roman and Christian Empire, under the shelter of which labour had grown and prospered, was overset from roof to foundation in the West, and formidably sapped in the East. Ruins lay everywhere; anarchy took the place of order, and the reign of force succeeded to that of law; production in all its forms was arrested, the treasury of wealth accumulated by former generations was scattered; economic and social progress ceased. A blind work of destruction was all that was accomplished by these barbarians, whose sole useful influence was to provoke a salutary reaction among the chosen few who preserved the tradition and the remnants of civilization.
