My launch piece for Yorkshire Bylines explored the socio-economic changes wrought by the Bubonic Plague of 1347 and the changes Covid-19 might bring. It was written just after the UK’s first ‘lockdown’ commenced on 23 March 2020.
The Black Death: a catalyst for change
Between a third and a half of Europe’s population died in the Bubonic Plague, leaving a depleted labour force which did not fully recover for a further 150 years. While feudalism limped on for a couple more centuries, it was no longer sustainable. Wealth shifted from land and its subsistence agrarian economy to manufacturing, and serfdom was replaced by yearly or seasonal contractual employment or long apprenticeships, both underpinned by insecure day wage-labour.
The hierarchical duties of serfs, tenants and landowners towards each other were fractured and eroded. While all classes suffered during the plague – especially the poorest – workers gained increased autonomy and improved wages in the aftermath, which was sustained until rising population levels once again eroded bargaining power.
Covid-19 and the fight for worker rights
It was clear, even in the early days of Covid-19, that preventative measures such as lockdown, working from home and furlough, rather than death, would have the most impact on socio-economic relations. For the middle classes, working from home and greater use of information technology opened up new opportunities and more temporal and geographical freedoms. The working classes and ethnic minorities – often working in jobs such as health and care work, garment production, and food processing – were hardest hit by layoffs, job losses and greater exposure to the disease.
Just as landowners fought back after the plague to restore feudal rights and reduce wages, many employers and rentier capitalists have sought to claw back any gains made by workers during Covid-19 and return to the modern surveillance workplace. Being present, and ‘owned’ by an employer for a period of the day, has crept back in as being more important than productivity or output, in some sectors.
The respect shown to workers who kept the nation alive and functioning during Covid-19 was also quickly reversed once the disease was under control. Health workers – heroes during the height of the pandemic – were denounced as greedy and inflexible when pursuing wage increases a couple of years later. Those working from home were described as lazy, not working at all, or due less pay as they no longer have commuter costs.
Will history repeat itself?
Attempts to revert to the prior status quo have been strongly resisted by many, including some employers. Covid-19 accelerated changes in the digital economy, particularly in work tools, online resources, communications and delivery services. Companies reduced office space; diminished their responsibilities through increased home working; expanded the use of task-based contracts and subcontracts; and eliminated much travel for face-to-face meetings.
After the Plague, and in the absence of labour, landowners converted unproductive land to sheep farming which, in turn, accelerated the development of wool processing and cloth manufacture. Capital resources moved from land to industry. Similarly, the nature of work has changed for many after Covid-19, and a return to previous arrangements is unlikely.
Then, as now, the changes are dominated by the availability of cheap labour which varies according to sector. And, in the UK’s case, by the implementation of Brexit, which coincided with Covid-19. Any real, sustained patterns of work and socio-economic relations will only become clear as time passes. I look forward to revisiting this piece on the Bubonic Plague again, in another five years.
