Research Paper on:
Black Plague of the Fourteenth Century and Economics

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
plague that would claim nearly twenty five million lives in Europe, did not originate on its own shores(Bubonic Plague 2002). During this time the economic and social conflicts only added  to the misery of the people of the day and age. One of the leading countries in shipping, England boasted a truly international port system. Unfortunately, it is this very  success that brought the plague to Europes shores. In Sicily, reports of sick and dying sailors who were just returning from China, abounded. It is reported that within days,  the disease had spread. An eyewitness recounts: "Realizing what a deadly disaster had come to them, the people quickly drove the Italians from their city. But the disease remained,  and soon death was everywhere. Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the  sick, and monasteries and convents were soon deserted, as they were stricken, too. Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to give them a Christian burial."  Medieval medicine was helpless to combat this disease as they did not know what had started it. Beginning with flu like symptoms, swelling of the lymph glands and red  or black spots on the skin gave the plague the name, Black Death. Because so many would die from this, it inevitably placed Europe in a very precarious position. Some  estimates place some citys losses at around eighty to ninety percent of its workforce(Bubonic Plague, 2002). Not only were Europeans struggling for their lives against the plague, but economically  they found themselves scrambling to recover. Labor shortages abounded and as a result those that were well took advantage of the situation and demanded higher wages. When the landlords refused