Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in History
Subsisting Or Succumbing? Falling Wages In The Era Of Plague, Stuart Borsch
Subsisting Or Succumbing? Falling Wages In The Era Of Plague, Stuart Borsch
History Department Faculty Works
This article reexamines wages in Egypt using new evidence not analyzed in my previous study of the late Mamluk economy (Borsch, The Black Death in Egypt and England, 2005). The results show that wages for unskilled labor fell precipitously from the 1300s to the 1400s and stayed at a very low level thereafter.
Plague Depopulation And Irrigation Decay In Medieval Egypt, Stuart Borsch
Plague Depopulation And Irrigation Decay In Medieval Egypt, Stuart Borsch
History Department Faculty Works
Starting with the Black Death, and continuing over the century and a half that followed, plague depopulation brought about the ruin of Egypt’s irrigation system, the motor of its economy. For many generations, the Egyptians who survived the plague therefore faced a tragic new reality: a transformed landscape and way of life significantly worsened by plague, a situation very different from that of plague survivors in Europe. This article looks at the ways in which this transformation took place. It measures the scale and scope of rural depopulation and explains why it had such a significant impact on the agricultural …