In 1405 a former market inspector in Cairo wrote that the disaster around him was made worse by the people running the country. The same Black Death that gave English workers a lasting raise was followed in Egypt by a century and a half of rural decline. Why the same shock splits people into winners and losers, and how to read the next one in your own life.
Takeaways
- After the Black Death, the real wages of English building workers roughly doubled by the mid-1400s, even though the king ordered pay frozen. In Egypt, the same plague was followed by a century and a half of rural decline.
- In Stuart Borsch's argument, the difference was power, not the plague: a small elite in Cairo squeezed the fewer peasants who were left, and Egypt's irrigation decayed. Historians still debate the size of the gap.
- This week: pick one shock in your world, name what it made scarce, and make one small use of any scarcity you hold.
Chapters
- The market inspector's accusation0:17
- The raise the plague paid2:27
- Who holds what's scarce4:25
- Two people after the same shock7:02
- Hear it done8:03
- Build yours9:29
- The answer10:53
References
- al-Maqrizi, trans. Allouche, A. — Mamluk Economics: A Study and Translation of al-Maqrizi's Ighathah(1994)
- Ibn Khaldun, trans. Rosenthal, F. — The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History(1958)
- Borsch, S. J. — The Black Death in Egypt and England: A Comparative Study(2005)
- Borsch, S. J. — Plague depopulation and irrigation decay in medieval Egypt(2014)
- Munro, J. — Review of Borsch, The Black Death in Egypt and England (EH.net)(2005)
- Pamuk, Ş. — The Black Death and the origins of the 'Great Divergence' across Europe, 1300–1600(2007)
- Pamuk, Ş., & Shatzmiller, M. — Plagues, wages, and economic change in the Islamic Middle East, 700–1500(2014)
- Carmichael, A. G. — Book review: The Black Death in Egypt and England (Medical History)
- Edward III / Parliament of England — Ordinance of Labourers (1349) and Statute of Labourers (1351)(1349)
- Bailey, M. — The implementation of national labour legislation in England after the Black Death, 1349–1400(2025)