Unreal wages: Long-run living standards and the ‘golden age’ of the fifteenth century

Abstract

Not many decades ago the long fifteenth century was a notoriously dark age in English history, neglected because it was located awkwardly between the ‘true’ Middle Ages and the early modern era. When at last it began to receive the attention it warranted, attempts to dispel the gloom were bedevilled by an ambition to fashion generalisations that fitted the whole experience of the 150 years after 1350, or even the quarter millennium from 1300 to 1550. As a result fundamental disagreements arose, the most notable being whether this era should be characterised by economic growth and prosperity or by recession and decline. However, contention cooled as more research was undertaken, topics on the agenda defined and prioritised, and more manageable chronologies adopted, along with a willingness to identify sub-periods and sectors whose characteristics differed in major respects. Confidence has now increased sufficiently to persuade us that we are close to achieving a full understanding of the economy and society of England at the close of the Middle Ages, and there are distinct signs of a consensus emerging, with optimistic epithets such as ‘Economic Growth’, ‘An Age of Ambition’, ‘A Golden Age of Prosperity’, ‘An Age of Transition’, ‘A Consumer Economy’ and ‘A New Middle Ages’ in the ascendant. However, a little more probing reveals that there is much that remains mysterious about the era and paradoxical about attempts that have been made to describe and explain it.