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If you’re stressed about COVID plague & mass stupidity leading to reckless behavior, just remember: The Black Death caused the renaissance, baby! (Well...sort of) So here’s to hoping! 
(CW: this is a history and grim humor thread, I’m not minimizing the risk and loss) /THREAD
(CW: this is a history and grim humor thread, I’m not minimizing the risk and loss) /THREAD
The year was 1348. The Black Death had already been raging through mainland Europe at breakneck speed, and in 1348 it finally jumped the English channel and began its spread across England.
Within 2 years, 40% of the population of the country was dead....
Within 2 years, 40% of the population of the country was dead....
40% of the country was dead.
What would that feel like? Try to imagine. For just a moment, try to make that personal.
For every 100 friends you have on Facebook, 40 of them die in the next year.
(CW: Facebook is trash, don’t use it. I’m just illustrating a point)...
What would that feel like? Try to imagine. For just a moment, try to make that personal.
For every 100 friends you have on Facebook, 40 of them die in the next year.
(CW: Facebook is trash, don’t use it. I’m just illustrating a point)...
You go to your lecture hall at school, and half of the people who showed up on the first day are no longer there… because they are dead.
It is an empty world. And of course, they’re not just MISSING. Where are all of the bodies going? What does the air smell like in the city?...
It is an empty world. And of course, they’re not just MISSING. Where are all of the bodies going? What does the air smell like in the city?...
That was the world in 1350 in England. What happens next? Well, a lot of the free market lovin’ small business owners are none too happy, that’s what happens next. Why? Just think in terms of basic free market economics. ...
In the disastrous world where 40% of the population dies off in a few years, the demand for workers was many, many times the supply. It’s the opposite of “unemployment”, somehow. And the free market did its thing: wages shot through the roof.
You can think it through like you’re in an intro economics class, with an illustrative scenario: farmhand John Smith knows that Land Owner Willard needs workers desperately, because without workers his land will lay fallow, with no crops, and he will have no income in the spring.
So when Willard says, “I will pay you three shillings,” and John Smith says, “I’m going to need ten shillings,” Willard has no options. If Willard tries to insist on 3 shillings, the desperate land owner down the road will likely pay 10 and then Willard will have no workers...
Which means wages on the “free market” skyrocketed.
The situation got so bad that the landlords and business owners complained to the King and demanded a.... wait for it... maximum wage law!
(Business owners: not so keen on “free markets” when the maths aren’t in their favor)
The situation got so bad that the landlords and business owners complained to the King and demanded a.... wait for it... maximum wage law!
(Business owners: not so keen on “free markets” when the maths aren’t in their favor)
1349 Ordinance of Labourers and 1351 Statute of Labourers were a crack-down on the problem of rapidly rising wages that resulted from the Black Plague. It had many provisions but the gist was: laborers can’t demand any wage more than they would have gotten before the plague hit..
One part of the ordinance even stated that if you are not invalid or independently wealthy you were REQUIRED to accept any job offer you were given. This was a bit too far for many, and eventually lead to revolts, and so on, but eventually the upshot of all of this...
...was truly stupid amounts of wealth floating around & not many people 
Combine that with what was going on with banking on the continent (beyond the scope of this thread tbh) and the result is... the Renaissance! Plenty of work, plenty of pay, plenty of support for the arts.
Combine that with what was going on with banking on the continent (beyond the scope of this thread tbh) and the result is... the Renaissance! Plenty of work, plenty of pay, plenty of support for the arts.
