Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/506

 430 Outlines of European History Conditions of English labor In England the growing discontent among the farming classes may be ascribed partly to the results of the great pesti- lence and partly to the new taxes which were levied in order to prolong the disastrous war with France. Up to this time the majority of those who cultivated the land belonged to some particular manor, paid stated dues to their lord, and performed definite services for him. Hitherto there had been relatively few farm hands who might be hired and who sought employ- ment anywhere that they could get it. The black death, by greatly decreasing the number of laborers, raised wages and served to increase the importance of the unattached laborer. Consequently he not only demanded higher wages than ever before but readily deserted one employer when another offered him more money. This appeared very shocking to those who were accustomed to the traditional rates of payment ; and the government under- took to keep down wages by prohibiting laborers from asking more than had been customary during the years that preceded the pestilence. Every laborer, when offered work at the estab- lished wages, was ordered to accept it on pain of imprisonment. The first "Statute of Laborers" was issued in 135 1 ; but apparently it was not obeyed, and similar laws were enacted from time to time for a century. The old manor system was breaking up. Many of the labor- ing class in the country no longer held land as serfs but moved from place to place and made a living by working for wages. The villain, as the serf was called in England, began to regard the dues which he had been accustomed to pay to his lord as unjust. A petition to Parliament in 1377 asserts that the vil- lains are refusing to pay their customary services to their lords or to acknowledge the obligations which they owe as serfs. In 1 38 1 the peasants rose in revolt against the taxes levied on them to carry on the hopeless war with France. They burned some of the houses of the nobles and of the rich ecclesiastics, and took particular pains to see that the registers were destroyed