The commercialization of labour markets: evidence from wage inequality in the Middle Ages

Jordan Claridge, Vincent Delabastita and Spike Gibbs

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper moves beyond the focus on ‘average’ wage trends in pre-industrial economies by examining the broad diversity of pay rates and forms of remuneration across occupations and regions in medieval England. We find that, while some workers enjoyed substantial growth in wage rates after the Black Death, there was a large group who experienced no real increases. We argue that wage inequality in post-Black Death England reflects the uneven penetration of market forces across occupations and regions, with deep-rooted customary structures continuing to shape remuneration. Its findings suggest that a more nuanced approach is essential for understanding the complexities and continuities of pre-industrial labour dynamics.

Keywords: wages; labour markets; medieval England; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J33 J42 N33 N53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2025-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/128024/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:128024

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().