A Price on Bread? A Town Council in the Great Famine

The Great Famine

1In the spring of 1315, heavy rain began to fall across northern Europe, and it kept falling through the summer. Fields turned to mud, seed rotted in the ground and the grain that did ripen was thin. The harvest of 1316 failed as well. Historians call these years the Great Famine. In many English markets, wheat came to cost several times its usual price. Salt, made in England mostly by drying out seawater, became scarce and costly too. Poor families spent most of their money on bread even in good years, and many of them went hungry. Large numbers of people died.

2People argued about what to do. In 1315 the king and Parliament set the highest prices that sellers could charge for oxen, pigs, sheep, chickens and eggs. Within months, many sellers kept their animals at home or sold them privately, and early in 1316 the order was cancelled. Towns also used an old rule called the assize of bread. Under it, a farthing loaf always cost one farthing, a small coin, but when wheat cost more, bakers had to make the loaf lighter.

Ashcombe Town Council, May 1316

1Mayor Thomas Leland: "Wheat at our market costs more each week, and some citizens ask this council to set a highest price for it. We will hear both sides, and then we will decide."

2Margery Fletcher, a widow who speaks for poor households: "My neighbors' children cry for bread. A laborer's pay for a day's work no longer buys enough bread for his family. Meanwhile some dealers keep sacks of grain in their barns, waiting for the price to climb even higher. Many priests teach that a seller should ask a just price, not the most a hungry buyer will pay. I ask the council to set a highest price for wheat, so that every family in Ashcombe can eat."

3Robert Gage, a grain dealer: "I want Ashcombe fed as much as anyone. But remember the king's order on animals last year. When prices were held down, sellers kept their beasts at home and the market stood empty. Wheat is scarce everywhere this year. If our price is lower than in the towns around us, the carters will drive past our gate and sell there. A high price is what draws grain to a town."

4Mayor Thomas Leland: "There may be a third way. The town has money saved in its chest. We could send carters to buy wheat wherever it can be found, and then sell it to poor households at the price we paid, without profit."