Economic Transformations in England during the Reign of King Richard II
(1377–1399)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65074/gp8w9j14Keywords:
England, The Black Death, feudalism, wages and prices, Richard IIAbstract
This study examines the economic transformations that happened in England during the reign of King Richard II (1377–1399), treating this period as a pivotal phase in the reconfiguration of the English economy in the later medieval. That era coincided with a marked decline in the prices of grain and agricultural produce, alongside a sustained rise in both nominal and real wages. It also witnessed a notable expansion of the pastoral economy—particularly sheep farming and the wool trade—as well as growth in industrial sectors, especially textiles and mining.
The study is grounded in a central research problem that asks whether these changes merely represented a short-term response to the demographic and climatic shocks that followed the Black Death, or whether they reflected a deeper structural transformation in the foundations of the traditional feudal economy. It argues that these developments were not temporary, but rather contributed to the consolidation of a new economic trajectory characterised by greater flexibility, a more pronounced role for market mechanisms, and the expanding importance of wage labour.
Methodologically, the study adopts a quantitative approach supported by historical structural analysis, tracing trends in prices and wages and examining sectoral changes in agriculture, pastoralism, and industry. It concludes that the reign of Richard II constituted a genuine economic turning point, reshaping productive relations as well as patterns of consumption and exchange, undermining key pillars of the feudal economy, and paving the way for broader economic transformations in the later medieval and the early modern period.
References
Mavis Mate, “Agrarian Economy after the Black Death: The Manors of Canterbury Cathedral Priory, 1348–1391”, The Economic History Review, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1984, p. 349.
( ) Mark Bailey, After the Black Death, op. cit, p. 242.
( ) Ibid, p. 238.
( ) Ibid, p. 239.
( ) David Stone, Decision-Making in Medieval Agriculture, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, pp. 122-124.
( ) Mavis Mate, Agrarian Economy after the Black Death, op. cit, pp. 345-346.
( ) Christopher Dyer, Everyday life in medieval England, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 80-82.
( ) Mavis Mate, Agrarian Economy after the Black Death, op. cit, pp. 345-346.
( ) David Stone, op. cit, p. 149-150.
( ) Ibid.
( ) George Guest, A Social History of England, G. Bell, London, 1921, pp. 82-83
( ) Bruce Campbell, “The Land,” The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 2, 1042–1350, ed. H. E. Hallam, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988, p. 186.
( ) David Stone, op. cit, p. 127.
( ) Ibid.
( ) Richard Britnell, The Commercialization of English Society, 1000–1500, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, p. 78.
( ) Bruce Campbell, ”The Land,” The Agrarian History of England and Wales, op. cit, p. 187.
( ) Bruce Campbell, Grain Yields on English Demesnes after the Black Death, op. cit, p. 126.
( ) Mark Bailey, “The Rabbit and the Medieval East Anglian Economy”, The Agricultural History Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1988, p. 12.
( ) Ibid, p. 16.
( ) Ibid, p. 19.
( ) Mark Bailey, The Rabbit and the Medieval East Anglian Economy, op. cit, p. 19.
( ) David Gould, “The Distribution of Rabbit Warrens in Medieval England: An East–West Divide?,” Journal of Rural Studies, Vol. 55, 2017, pp. 9-11.
( ) Ibid, p. 18.
( ) Mark Bailey, The Rabbit and the Medieval East Anglian Economy, op. cit, p. 16.
( ) Ibid, p. 19.
( ) L. F. Salzman, English Life in the Middle Ages, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1927, p. 238.
( ) James Bolton, op. cit, p. 208.
( ) Simon Penn and Christopher Dyer, “Wages and Earnings in Late Medieval England: Evidence from Enforcement of the Labour Laws,” Economic History Review, Vol. 43, No. 3, 1990, p. 359.
( ) Mark Bailey, After the Black Death, op. cit, p. 234.
( ) Ibid, p. 250.
( ) Terrence Henry Lloyd, The English wool trade in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977, p. 88.
( ) Terrence Henry Lloyd, p. 250.
( ) Ian Blanchard, Industrial Employment and The Rural Iand Market 1380-1520, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009, pp. 229,231.
( ) L. F. Salzman, op. cit, p. 234.
( ) Ibid.
( ) Christopher Dyer, Everyday life in medieval England, op. cit, p. 129.
( ) Ian Blanchard, op. cit, pp. 232-233.
( ) Mark Bailey, After the Black Death, op. cit, p. 249.
( ) Richard Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 1300-1525, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 77-79.
( ) Simon Penn and Christopher Dyer, “Wages and Earnings in Late Medieval England: Evidence from Enforcement of the Labour Laws”, Economic History Review, Vol. 43, No. 3, 1990, pp. 362-363.
( ) Nora Kenyon, “Labour Conditions in Essex in the Reign of Richard II,” The Economic History Review, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1934, p. 441.
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