(Solved): Look again at Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.19 showing graphs of real wages in England between 1300 and 2 ...

Look again at Figure $$2.1$$ and Figure $$2.19$$ showing graphs of real wages in England between 1300 and 2000 . You are also told the following facts: During the bubonic plague of 1348 and 1351 , between one-quarter and one-third of Europe's population died. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the wages of unskilled workers relative to the incomes of land owners were only one-fifth of what they had been in the sixteenth century. What can we conclude from this information? Page 1. The doubling and halving of the real wage index over 250 years from around 1350 is contrary to the Malthusian model. The fall in the unskilled workers' share of total output in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was due to the fall in their average product of labour. The fall in the relative wages of the unskilled workers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was one of the factors that led to the eventual shooting up of the real wage in the nineteenth century, seen in the graph. According to the Malthusian model, the fall in the population due to the bubonic plague would have led to an increase in the average productivity of workers. causing the observed rise in the real wage post-plague.