In 1349 Parlament enacted the Ordinance of Labourers in response to the shortage of labour caused by the 1348 Black Death Plague Outbreak. The Ordinance introduced

• a requirement for everyone under 60 to work,
• wages to remain a pre-plague level,
• food must be reasonably priced, and
• no-one, under the pain of imprisonment, was to give any thing to able-bodied beggars 'under the color of pity or alms'.

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