deal of money abroad, and much of this money was obtained by leasing their lands for long terms of years. The rent paid was called feorm: hence the name of farm given to the land thus leased. They also allowed their villeins or serfs to buy their freedom. The king himself raised money by selling to his serfs their freedom.
In this reign an important change took place in the industries of the country. Edward brought over weavers from Flanders, who taught the people to weave their own wool into cloth, instead of sending it abroad to be woven by others and then brought back again to be worn. Trade grew with Normandy, Flanders, and Gascony, in fish and timber, wool and wine, and salt, respectively. Gold coins also came into use, the first being used in 1344. Parliament now began to meet in two separate chambers; the knights and burgesses in one, and the bishops and barons in the other.
7. Statute of Labourers.—in 1348, a great calamity came upon England. This was a dreadful plague, known as the ‘‘Black Death,” which swept over Europe from the Eaast, and which, it is estimated, destroyed one-half the population of England. The people died so fast that it was difficult for the living to bury the dead. One effect of the plague was that there were not enough people left to till the soil and harvest the crops. Labourers were now in great demand, and, naturally, they asked for higher wages. But the owners of the land made the laws, and they passed the “Statute of Labourers,” by which wages were not to be increased. The labourers tried to escape from places where wages were low to where they were high, so it was enacted that a labourer should not leave his own parish. If he did, he was liable to be branded with the letter F (fugitive) on his forehead. If a labourer was found unemployed, any land owner could make him work for him. These unjust laws made the people very unhappy and discontented.
8. Chaucer, Langland, and Wiclif.—We see this by the writings of a great poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived at this time. Also in the poem, The Vision of Piers’ Plowman, by Langland, who
wrote for the people, we find this discontent voiced in very plain and bitter words. At this time, too, lived John Wiclif a great religious reformer. Wiclif was a learned clergyman who seeing how the priests neglected their duties wrote against their
