THE WAGE-PRICE FREEZE OF 1351
Schoeplein, Robert N.
THE WAGE-PRICE FREEZE OF 1351 ROBERT N. SCHOEPLEIN Lo, a Black Plague descended on England during 1348-49, ravishing the population and casting a pall across the land. Surviving ploughmen and...
...Merchants were to market their goods at reasonable prices and content themselves with moderate gains...
...Agricultural unions were formed, and collective bargaining was strengthened by a new spirit of solidarity...
...Robert N. Schoeplein is associate professor of economics in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois...
...Moreover, King Richard imposed a poll tax of one shilling a head, authorized for defense expenditures...
...Note: The balance of King Richard's reign was characterized by political reverses, culminating in his dethronement in 1399...
...The Royal Army moved to restore order...
...A second Act was passed prescribing branding for all workingmen who left their native town to seek higher wages...
...The foreign war, which dragged on interminably, had drained the Treasury...
...Enforcement was arbitrary, and labourers took liberties to circumvent the law...
...It is recorded that King Richard II came to an obscure end at Pontefract Castle...
...Initially the freeze on wages enjoyed modest success but prices moved upward, as the term "reasonable" in the guidelines was found to be so elastic as to be variously interpreted...
...The new tax would go...
...Two days later King Richard issued a proclamation forbidding unauthorized gatherings of people...
...The renewed Statute of Labourers (1378) concentrated o» wages...
...The King's Chancellor and the Royal Treasurer were taken into custody and promptly beheaded, this act described as a gesture reflecting the intensity of feeling over the new economic program...
...He agreed to permit more liberal working arrangements between labourers and their masters, and more flexible markets for labourers' services...
...Both wages and prices continued to rise moderately until the inflation eventually had run its course...
...The King's councils began deciding labour disputes on the individual merits of each case...
...The King promptly issued a proclamation freezing wages and prices...
...This sudden turn in events alarmed both lords and merchants, who feared the specter of shrinking rents and profits in the face of uncertain markets...
...King Richard was advised to meet with spokesmen from the movement at Mile End, a field outside the city...
...In this phase the Statute was to be enforced without exception...
...This was followed by the Statute of Labourers of 1351 which detailed the new economic program...
...Wages rose in spite of the new economic program...
...King Edward III shared concerns of producers over rising costs of labour and the "unnatural state of affairs...
...King Richard II ascended the throne in 1377...
...In time business conditions improved, but the moderate economic recovery only aggravated domestic tensions because the stringent restrictions on labour contrasted with the increased wealth of lords and merchants...
...The bulk of revenues for the Royal coffers was generated by levies on the sales of staples...
...Workers saw themselves in a new relationship with their employers and toward the authority of government...
...Surviving ploughmen and artisans found their services in increased demand, and wages rose accordingly...
...This was followed by a second proclamation rescinding the King's previously negotiated guarantees...
...This new package simply was too much...
...The Crown deemed the new terms more reasonable, as the Statute would permit "merited" increases in wages...
...Counselors to the young king advised him to promote trade, and accordingly he enacted the second phase of the new economic program...
...King Richard sought the wisdom of counsel, as the people stormed the city and sacked public buildings...
...The second phase of the new economic plan was never the same, however, for marked changes began to take place in social institutions...
...The inflation was aggravated further by a coinage depreciation undertaken by the Treasury, to continue supporting the One Hundred Years' War on the Continent...
...Yeomen, labourers, and artisans united and marched across the countryside toward London...
...Other dissidents remaining in London had seized the Tower...
...The government was forced to further action to keep the lid on wages...
...Wage settlements reflected the particular circumstances of each trade...
...King Richard was shaken...
...A new Royal office was instituted and "justices of labourers" (later merged into justices of the peace) were appointed by the Crown to regulate wages and prices throughout the realm...
...Wages were to remain at their previous levels...
...The negotiations are recorded: King Richard made it clear that his concerns were for the welfare of the common man...
...This Peasants' Revolt of 1381 caught the complacent government by surprise...
...Curiously, the negotiations ended on a morbid note: Wat Tyler, the movement spokesman, was slain by a blow from a sword...
Vol. 36 • April 1972 • No. 4
