Work 3

The peasant knaves be too wealthy (…) they know no obedience, they regard no laws, they would have no gentlemen. (…) They will appoint us what rent we shall take for our grounds.

Quote: R. H. Tawney and Eileen Power (1924): “Tudor Economic Documents,” London, vol. iii, p. 58 (spelling modernised) quoted by Christopfer Dyer (1968): “A Redistribution of Incomes in Fifteenth-Century England?” In Past & Present, No. 39, Oxford University Press, p. 33. Picture: Spartacus Educational

English chronicle from the 16th century. 1550 is an approximation.

In the 14th century in particular, there were revolts all across Europe against the church and nobility – who forced farmers to work as serfs. This resistance was, however, weakened by the great plagues (Federici, 2014: 55). Poor people were particularly vulnerable. Yet because of the plagues and the feeling of imminent death they generated, many serfs no longer saw any point in working so hard. In addition, the great plague epidemic from 1346 to 1353 (which killed a third of Europe's population) also led to a labour shortage. This enabled surviving farmers and serfs to demand better working and living conditions from their masters, who, as in the quote, complained about this new self-confidence.

*Silvia Federici (2014): Caliban and the Witch. Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Autonomedia. *Juliet B. Schor (1991): The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. New York: Basic Books.

1400