Social And Economic Repercussions Of The Black Plague

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Beginning is the late 1340’s; nothing was more destructive to the social and economic structure of Europe than the Black Plague. Also referred to by its more scientific name of Bubonic Plague, it was the most prevalent of three main types of plague which also included pneumonic and septicemic. The plague is thought to have begun in central Asia and spread along the Silk Road into Europe. The most common belief is that fleas who had bitten infected rats and then bit humans were the cause of the spread. Symptoms of this plague included but were not limited to sub epidermal hemorrhages, swollen lymph nodes, and gangrene. From infection to death was a relatively short period most of the time only being a week. As the plague ravaged Europe it took with it an estimated 25-50 million people and forever changed its social and economic landscape. (Gottfried, p. 6-7) One of the biggest impacts of the plague felt throughout the world was that of trade. The plague disrupted the entire old world trading system due to the fact that trade was the main cause of the spread. The quarantine of ships hindered the flow of trade but did little to stem the spread of the plague. While the government was busy quarantining the people on those ships it was actually the rats that were spreading it. Where government authorities were concerned, most monarchs instituted measures that prohibited exports of foodstuffs, condemned black market speculators, set price controls on grain, and outlawed large-scale fishing. At best, they proved mostly unenforceable, and at worst, they contributed to a continent-wide downward spiral. The hardest hit lands like England were unable to buy grain abroad. Because of the prohibition, England could 1 not buy grain from France. Shortage of labor resulted in widespread crop failure among the rest of the gain producers of the region. Any grain that
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