Statute of Labourers (1351)

In 1351 parliament passed a statute which fixed the wages for labourers to the levels before the Black Death of 1348/49. Since then the population had been diminished about a third resulting in an alarming rise in wages.

From 1351 onwards, ploughmen were to be hired for by the year for 10d. per wheat bushel harvested, master masons were to earn 4d. per day and other masons 3d. The terms were valid for all landless men under 60 and their lords had first claim on their work.

Although Edward III tried to enforce the statute by commissioners controlling the counties, its provisions could never compete with the developments of the free market. By the 1370s the statute had fallen into disuse.