Effects of the Black Death

“There were dead bodies all over, and all were treated in pretty much the same manner by their neighbors, who were moved no less by fear that the corrupted bodies would infect them than by any pity they felt toward the deceased. They would drag the dead bodies out of their homes (either themselves or with the aid of porters, when they could get them) and left them in front of their doors.” This unimaginable picture was described in the introduction to Giovanni Boccaccio’s work The Decameron. Boccaccio lived in Florence during the time of the plague and was a part of the twenty-five percent of Florentians who survived the “Black Death” or “Great Pestilence” as it was known at the time. The “Black Death”, which began in Asia around 1330, spread to Europe by 1347, quickly rampaging across the continent killing thirty to fifty percent of the population (Cantor, 7) by 1350. The effects of the plague where physiologically, socially, and economically catastrophic.

Physiologically the “Black Death” was cataclysmic in the rate of decline and violence of the afflictions, having been rarely matched by modern maladies. The horrific symptoms experienced by european people beginning in 1347 were gruesome but also short to last, for death was foreseeable within two to five days of contracting symptoms. The first sign of disease from the most most common form of infection, the Bubonic plague, was the appearance of large buboes, extremely swollen lymph nodes, on groin, neck and/or armpit; the “tumours” as they were called ,which grew to be the size of an egg or a small apple(Boccaccio,4), then spread over the whole figure. Following this, one would experience flu like symptoms: high fever, muscle aches, vomiting, and chills. Internal hemorrhag...

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...aralysis. It was very difficult and dangerous to trade products locally and internationally, causing trade to almost completely cease. But with the great rise in the price of goods, the cost and demand for able bodied workers skyrocketed as well. This altered the economic construct of Feudalism; the lords needed many laborers to farm their vast amounts of land, enabling the peasants to demand high salaries. Serfs were also free from being tied to a single master. Wages began rising more quickly than prices resulting in a higher standard of living, less disparity between classes, a redistribution of wealth, and blurred financial distinctions.(social.php) However, governments did attempt to enact legislation preventing a rise in wages, but it was not effectual. Lords needed workers and were willing to pay illegally high wages, even risking of punishment. `