(In-kind) wages and labour relations in the Middle Ages: it’s not (all) about the money

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 explores the prevalence of in-kind wages in medieval labour markets and the underlying reasons for their use. Using a new dataset of agricultural labourers in medieval England, we demonstrate that, until the late fourteenth century, wages were recorded anonymously and most remuneration was done through in-kind payment. From the 1370s, however, labour remuneration shifted increasingly to cash and workers began to be named individually in the accounts which recorded their wages. We argue that these changes reveal a fundamental shift in labour relations in late medieval England, providing new empirical insights into the ‘golden age of labour’ that followed the Black Death.

Keywords: (in-kind) wages; medieval economy; labour markets; labour relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J33 J42 N33 N53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2024-10-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Published in Explorations in Economic History, 31, October, 2024, 94. ISSN: 0014-4983

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:125597

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