A Reevaluation of the Impact of the Hundred Years War On The Rural Economy and Society of England

Abstract

Most scholars have argued that the Hundred Years War negatively impacted the economy and society of England. They have focused primarily on four aspects of the war: the burden of taxation on the English populace, the effects of purveyance on rural society, the effect of recruitment on the labour force of England and the costs of supporting military expeditions. However, in each case the actual degree of impact can be called into question or offset by appealing to other scholarship, or by drawing attention to related positive benefits that are too often overlooked. Beyond this, one must also consider the benefits of war in the form of new industry and the influx of money from high wages, rewards, ransoms, and the spoils of war. 
 
 This paper seeks to examine both the positive and negative impacts of the Hundred Years War on the rural society and economy of England and to demonstrate that the overall impact of the war was not as negative as the majority of historians have previously maintained.