Market Failure during the Great Famine in England and Wales (1315-7)

From the Apocalypse in a Biblia Pauperum illuminated at Erfurt around the time of the Great Famine of 1315–1317. Death "(Mors") sits astride a lion whose long tail ends in a ball of flame (Hell). Famine ("Fames") points to her hungry mouth.

While there can be little doubt that the floods of 1314-6 were the primary harbingers of the crisis, it is, perhaps, worth asking to what extent they were the only factors behind the hardship experienced between 1315 and 1317.

How Great Was the Great Famine of 1314-22: Between Ecology and Institutions

Medieval agriculture

The first aspect to be examined is the extent of harvest failures within different crop sectors. The second issue is to what degree was the Great Famine of 1314-22 a subsistence crisis…My project is based on over 3,000 manorial and monastic accounts compiled between c.1310 and 1350.

medievalverse magazine