Means of Living Quotes
This is one of the favorite quotations of students of labor relations. The Black Plague, which raged in Europe from 1347 to 1349, had left relatively few able bodied people alive. Given this shortage of labor, the price that workers could command rapidly increased. The wealthy were outraged that the law of supply and demand and the marketplace produced such a labor inflations and the king then passed this draconian decree that in effect was one of the early attempts at wage control. It went further in that the workers were required to work for the official wages and had no choice of not working at all. In effect, labor was drafted. See {611124} and {611126}