Economic Change, Silver, and the Plague of 664–687 in England

Abstract

Bede and other authors describe a destructive wave of plague sweeping across Britain and Ireland in the period 664–87. In the decades around and after this time, the English kingdoms saw rapid economic changes as urban settlements grew, monasteries were founded, and a large silver currency appeared. Here, it is proposed that these developments were influenced by the effects of the plague. Exact levels of mortality are uncertain, but the survivors may have had the capacity to produce more, and more diverse, goods. Relatively weak seigneurial powers on the part of landlords meant that non-elite cultivators became a more important economic constituency in these circumstances, while elites turned in two directions: to development of small but intensively worked central farms, and to liquidation of large stocks of silver, which enabled them to profit by engaging with a diverse body of partners. This liquidation took the form of a much expanded currency of silver pennies, which provides a case-study of monetization as an important yet comparatively short-term economic change.