John Hatcher
England in the Age of the Black Death
A conference to be held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 8-10 August 2009
This conference on England in the Age of the Black Death has two main aims. The first is to mark the retirement of John Hatcher in 2009. Professor Hatcher has been one of the leading scholars in medieval English social and economic history over the past thirty five years. His work has demonstrated not only a mastery of detailed empirical research based on primary sources, as shown, for instance, by his work on the duchy of Cornwall and on the coal industry, but also an ability to intervene in wider theoretical debates, as can be seen in the survey of the historiography of the medieval English economy which he co-wrote with Mark Bailey. Many of his publications, including the two text-books on the medieval English economy before 1348 which he co-wrote with Edward Miller, have become standard works in the field; others, such as his provocative study of medieval villeinage, have been extremely influential on later scholarship. Much of John's work, including his survey of the English economy after 1348, his studies of monastic mortality in the later middle ages and his important study of the mid-fifteenth century recession, have been linked with the impact of the Black Death on late medieval English society.
John Hatcher's students, friends, colleagues and contemporaries are keen that his retirement should be marked by a suitable academic occasion. The second aim of the conference is to honour John's academic achievement by exploring in more detail many of the questions and issues which his work has raised. In recent years, the Black Death itself has become an extremely controversial area with even the identity of the disease which caused the recurrent epidemics of this period now being a matter of lively debate. Demographically, this was a fascinating and extremely unusual period, with `plague' rapidly reducing England's population by a half or more and then preventing recovery for over a century and a half. The economic consequences of this high mortality are also controversial. For instance, did rising living standards help to stimulate economic growth? Can the period from 1348 to c.1520 be seen as a single period in economic terms? More generally, the impact of plague raises wider theoretical questions about the primacy of demographic fluctuation in explaining medieval social and economic change and the interaction of population change with other factors, such as class structure and class struggle: these questions were famously discussed in the "Brenner debate" in which John Hatcher himself played a central role. The conference's programme of papers seeks to address all of these issues, with sessions on demography, trade and industry, markets and fairs, agriculture and the manor. The speakers include many of the leading names in the field over the last three decades and John's impact on the study of the late medieval economy can be seen from the number of speakers who are or have been his doctoral students. With papers from such distinguished speakers on many of the key aspects of the late medieval economy, this conference should have a major impact on future research in this area, an impact which will hopefully be reinforced by the eventual publication of the conference proceedings.
The conference has been partly funded by a grant from the Economic History Society.
Conference organizers: Steve Rigby and Mark Bailey
Contact: S.H.Rigby@manchester.ac.uk
Conference Venue:
The conference will be held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 8-10 August 2009
Conference accommodation:
A limited amount of accommodation is available at Corpus Christi College itself. Early booking is advised. Alternatively, conference participants can organize their own accommodation. For those staying in college, the cost of the Sunday evening conference dinner is included in the accommodation; those not staying in college can pay separately if they wish to attend this dinner.
Conference booking:
There is a conference booking fee to cover the costs of hiring a room, circulating papers etc. If, for any reason, you are unable to attend the conference after you have registered, we will be happy to offer a full refund of your registration fee. We will not, however, be able to offer any refund after Friday 3 July, 2009.
You can download the conference booking form using the link below:
Conference programme:
The Provisional conference programme is available on-line: