INTRODUCTION 3 



the two measures will later be analyzed in detail ; here 

 it is sufficient to say that their main object was to secure 

 an adequate supply of labourers at the rate of wages pre- 

 vailing before the catastrophe,' and that the notable 

 feature of these enactments is that they constitute the 

 first important attempt of the central authorities to 

 apply to the country as a whole, uniform legislation on 

 wages and prices, -::;;^atters that had been previously left 

 to local control.'' y^ 



In considering this legislation there are two questions 

 that must be answered ; first, were its provisions legiti- 

 mate, and second, were they effective? Among histori- 

 ans we find strongly opposed opinions on both these 

 points. On one side it is urged that the statutes^ repre- 

 sent an endeavor to perpetuate villeinage and to hinder 

 the movement toward freedom * and aimed to restrict 

 wages in the interests of the employer to a degree that 



^ Since the supply was to be provided in part by the compulsory labour 

 of the able-bodied vagrant, it is true, as Cunningham points out, op. 

 cit-1 ». 335. that this portion of the ordinance marks the beginning of 

 what afterwards developed into a poor law. I am not here concerned 

 with this later development, which was certainly not foreseen by the 

 framers of the measure. 



* For an account of the action of the central government on economic 

 questions previous to 1349, see Cunningham, op. cit., i, 270 et seq., 

 329-330, ii, 6-7; and Ashley, Ec. Hist., i, ch. 3. The closest analogy 

 to the present enactment is that of the ordinance of prices of 1315, which 

 was speedily withdrawn; Rot. Pari., i, 295; Trokelowe, 89 93; Stubbs, 

 op. cit., ii, 350. I shall deal with the subject to a slight extent in pt. 

 ii, ch. i. 



^Throughout this work for the sake of brevity I use "statutes" to 

 include the ordinance and the statute, except when it is essential that a 

 distinction between them should be made. 



* Eden, State of the Poor, i, 41-42; Mackay, Hist, of Eng. Poor Law, 

 iii, 13-17; Nicholls, Hist, of Eng. Poor Law, \, 45; Pashley, Pauper- 

 ism and Poor Laws, 161-163; Seebohm, "Villainage in England," in 

 E. H. R., vii, 458. 



