Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/41

 Rh the land, the old aristocracy had to resort to extravagant expenditure in order to keep up appearances. Their work was done and they had to fall back upon badges as a sign of authority and status. This meant money, whilst their old economic relations meant comparatively small personal incomes. So they had to employ their lands in such a way as would yield them a higher revenue. Thus, whilst standing by all the outward appearances and the political and social structure of feudalism, the landed classes abandoned their social relationships and followed more and more closely the profit-making ways of the capitalism which was coming to rule the land.

The first uprising of the poverty-stricken in England came from famine and preaching. Whilst the third Edward was glorying in his shameful extravagances and follies, the shadow of plague was creeping westward over Europe. At the end of 1348 it fell upon England. Half the population died and social life was paralysed. The fields returned to their original wildness. The very beasts sickened and died too. After the horror came reaction. For a long time the workman had been drifting towards the status of a hired labourer, and was being pushed into the position of a landless and propertyless man without a guardian. After the plague, he found himself in an advantageous position, for he was a man whose services were sought, and not one who was trying to find an employer. He forced up his wage; in his moods of sportive independence or care-