by the progress of enfranchisement to rely for the purposes of
cultivation on the supply of hired labour, and hitherto this supply had
been abundant and cheap. But with the ravages of the Black Death and the
decrease of population labour at once became scarce and dear. There was a
general rise of wages, and the farmers of the country as well as the
wealthier craftsmen of the town saw themselves threatened with ruin by what
seemed to their age the extravagant demands of the labour class. Meanwhile
the country was torn with riot and disorder. An outbreak of lawless
self-indulgence which followed everywhere in the wake of the plague told
especially upon the "landless men," workers wandering in search of work who
found themselves for the first time masters of the labour market; and the
wandering labourer or artizan turned easily into the "sturdy beggar," or
the bandit of the woods. A summary redress for these evils was at once
provided by the Crown in a royal proclamation. "Because a great part of the
people," runs this ordinance, "and principally of labourers and servants,
is dead of the plague, some, seeing the need of their lords and the
scarcity of servants, are unwilling to serve unless they receive excessive
wages, and others are rather begging in idleness than supporting themselves
by labour, we have ordained that any able-bodied man or woman, of
whatsoever condition, free or serf, under sixty years of age, not living of
merchandise nor following a trade nor having of his own wherewithal to
live, either his own land with the culture of which he could occupy
himself, and not serving another, shall if so required serve another for
such wages as was the custom in the twentieth year of our reign or five or
six years before."

[Sidenote: Statute of Labourers]

It was the failure of this ordinance to effect its ends which brought about
at the close of 1349 the passing of the Statute of Labourers. "Every man or
woman," runs this famous provision, "of whatsoever condition, free or bond,
able in body, and within the age of threescore years, ... and not having of
his own whereof he may live, nor land of his own about the tillage of which
he may occupy himself, and not serving any other, shall be bound to serve
the employer who shall require him to do so, and shall take only the wages
which were accustomed to be taken in the neighbourhood where he is bound to
serve" two years before the plague began. A refusal to obey was pun