How the Black Death doubled wages and ended serfdom
A third of Europe died, and the survivors could suddenly name their price. This explainer follows labour, law and land from 1348 to the end of serfdom in the west.
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Transcript
Medieval Europe before plague
In medieval Europe, most people were serfs.
They worked land owned by a lord.
They could not leave, and earned almost nothing.
Population was stable and labour was cheap.
The plague arrives
In 1347, merchant ships brought rats carrying plague to Europe.
The disease spread along trade routes.
By 1350, the Black Death had killed roughly one third of Europe's people.
Entire villages emptied in weeks.
Labour shortage transforms power
Suddenly there were far fewer workers than lords needed.
Serfs realised they could demand payment.
Those who left found other lords competing for labour.
For the first time, a worker had bargaining power.
Wages rise sharply
Between 1350 and 1400, real wages roughly doubled.
A labourer could afford meat, better clothing, and sometimes land.
Peasants moved from fields to towns seeking higher pay.
The old wage scale collapsed.
Serfdom breaks apart
As labour became expensive, serfdom became unaffordable.
Lords could not force workers to stay without paying.
By 1450, serfdom had disappeared across Western Europe.
Workers became free wage labourers on contract.
Before and after plague
Before the plague, serfs owned nothing and moved nowhere.
After the plague, workers negotiated wages and chose where to work.
The Black Death killed millions, but it also ended an entire system of bondage.
Labour scarcity, not revolution, dismantled feudalism in Western Europe.
Every sentence above was written before a single picture was drawn, then each object it names was painted for this video alone.
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