SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



occurred in the autumn, especially in the districts on the Great North Road. 

 At Codicote early in November 1348 there is a suspicious mortality of five 

 tenants.' The outburst was not at its worst until the spring. In May 1349 

 at Tyttenhanger thirty-one tenants died," at Codicote fifty-nine before 

 19 May and later twenty-five more.* At Stevenage the worst was after 

 February 1349,^ and at Standon, where the disease remained from March 

 until Midsummer, the highest number of deaths, sixteen, occurred in April." 



The evidence is clearer as to the dates of the Plague than as to the 

 death-rate. In our ignorance of the population before the outbreak we 

 cannot estimate the numerical or proportionate loss. The study of its effects 

 in particular cases is safer and more impressive. 



The Black Death has usually been made a cause of labour trouble, as 

 distinct from trouble among villeins and freeholders, but precise examples 

 and the delimitation of the share of the landless and the landholder in the 

 revolt are somewhat less common. In Hertfordshire there is material for an 

 attempt. 



Clearly customary labour would continue at the old price, and this the 

 manorial rolls attest. 



The change was great in wages of hired harvest labour. At Pre in 

 1350 the threshing of wheat cost \d. a quarter, beans 3^. and drage o^d? 

 Eight years before prices for wheat and drage had been zd. and \\d. respec- 

 tively.' The reapers in 1350 had some 4^., some ^d. a day; they had 

 formerly been paid 3d', to ^d. an acre, A man mowing received 5^. a 

 month, presumably 2,d. a day and his board,' 



The figures from Ashwell show a similar rise. In 1352 an acre of 

 wheat was reaped for \od. and food, an acre of peas for td}'^ Threshing 

 cost 3^, a quarter for wheat and peas, 2.\d. for drage. The corresponding 

 wages for 1340— i were b\d. and \d. for reaping, for threshing ^^d. and i§^," 



At Meesden in 1355 reapers were paid 8d', an acre ; wheat was threshed 

 at id. a quarter, peas at zd., oats at i-^d.^^ In 1346-7 reaping of peas cost 

 ^d. the acre, oats 4^., the threshing prices were 2d., i\d. and id'," 



These figures are above the statutory rate of 1351- Under the Act 

 reapers received ^d. an acre, or c,d. a day, hoers or haymakers id., threshers 

 of wheat z^d. a quarter, and of other crops i\d. Customary works remained 

 at the customary sum," At Ashwell in 1352 and Pre in 1350 the day's 

 work in harvest was still sold to the villeins at id. and a hoeing work at fd'." 

 These may stand as typical of many other manors. At Meesden the bailiff 

 adopted the alternative plan. In 1355-6 the hoeing and part of the reaping 

 were actually done by the villeins, and 263 men still came to seven boondays.'^ 

 But the lord who sold these works at id. each evidently made a loss. 



The rise in agricultural wages in the rest of the year is hard to estimate. 

 The ordinary workman seems to have had about zd. or id. a day, rising later 

 to an average of ^d. a day.'^ 



2 Stowe MS. 849, fol. 50 et seq. 3 Caledon D. Ct. R. Tyttenhanger. 



4 Stowe MS. 849, fol. 50 et seq. » Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 178, no. 48. 



^ Ibid. no. 41. ' Mins. Accts. bdle. 867, no. 23. * Ibid. no. 22. 



' Ibid. bdle. 867, no. 23. w Ibid. bdle. 862, no, 6. " Ibid. 



12 Ibid. bdle. 867, no. 8. "Ibid. no. 6. " Par,, j?. ii, 233-4. 



15 Mins. Accts. bdles. 867, no. 23 ; 862, no. 6. i" Ibid, bdle 869, no. 8. 



'^ At Hatfield, Essendon and Hertford (Mins. Accts. bdles. 58, no. 1079 ; 873, no. 25). 



4 193 25 



