History 2403E Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Price Revolution, Bubonic Plague, Methods Of Coin Debasement
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
October 5th, 2017
Building Block Lecture:
The 16th Century Price Revolution
The Nobility
Economic change: becoming more expensive
Costs of these expenditures were growing
nobles found themselves pinched for cash
Solution - Feudal Reaction
A program implemented by nobles for getting money from peasants
Raised costs wherever they can
- Old laws
- Increased fines for usage of communal mills and ovens
- Increased fines for criminal offences
- Increased costs for justice (the only system)
o Ex. Settle a contract dispute
Inflation
Purchasing power of your money declines
a. inflation always affects the haves more than the have nots
o circumstances haven’t changed for the poor (already don’t have anything)
o however, for the nobles, everything they need for status (clothes, food, armor) costs
more
b. more damaging for people who live in cities than those in the country
o life in the country: have gardens, can hunt/ poach (a risk) = ways to cope and ways to
find food
o although poaching is illegal, either starve to death or hanged for poaching (if caught)
o life in the cities: packed together, only the wealthiest could imagine having a small
garden, no forests to hunt
o inflation hits much more directly
c. To what extent were prices actually rising?
o Between 1500-1550, prices increased 5-fold
o Could track an increase in inflation from 1.5-3% a year over the course of a 50-
year period
▪ Ex. In Canada, would be worried if we didn’t see an inflation rate
▪ Economists: a healthy economy, needs a somewhat desirable inflation of
about 1.5-2%
16th C. Reaction to Inflation:
Lost their minds, were outraged and frustrated
Saw a drastic set of circumstances
- Why were they so upset?
o Rate of inflation comes after a long period of time of relatively stable prices
o For as long as anyone could remember, prices were fixed and had not fluctuated by
much
o People were had grown use to these prices
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