Economic Ramifications of the Black Death

The economic ramifications of the Black Death were significantly boosted by the circumstances under which it arrived. On the eve of the Black Death’s arrival the population growth of the High Middle Ages was pressing against the European societies ability to feed itself, which had also been undercut by climate change and famine. As the agricultural sector declined Europe was hit with an outbreak of the haemorrhagic plague, commonly referred to as the Black Death (Duncan, Scott 315). The effects of the Black Death would quickly bring the agricultural sector of the Middle Ages crashing down and would nearly take the entire economy with it. The reliance of the European society on the agrarian economy cannot be overlooked when considering the overall socioeconomic effect of the Black Death. The economic effects of the Black Death on the European agrarian society produced by mixture of preceding events and direct affects of mass population loss would ultimately diminish economic impediments and create new opportunity.
The economic climate of pre-Black Death Europe is not brightened by hindsight, as it is still a very bleak time period even when compared to the events that immediately followed it. The overpopulation produced by an explosion in population growth that was aided in the advancement of agricultural technology was actually straining the limits of societies ability to feed itself. This led to a number of things including rising contract holdings, which aided by rising impoverishment not only spread cultivation to low-fertility lands but created a demand that would be met by the owners of the more fertile lands (Routt 2). Unfortunately the suppliers eagerness to appease the demand and generate money led not only to a loss in fertile land but would in the long run prove to be very detrimental to the yield of grain (2). This along with climate change and famine pushed the agrarian economy to the edge, to only be pushed over by the arrival of the Black Death. In...