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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-ZA link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Some interesting articles on the topic. I didn’t realise how far back the analysis of the economic impact of the Black Death goes, but this piece by Helen Robbins from 1928 already canvasses the differential impact on economic organisation between England and France, even though she is at pains to stress that a long term trend of rising prices and wages was already underway because of the debased coinage, mainly due to the financing costs of 100 years’ war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Ole Benedictow (2013) gives a great summary of the debates about the origins of plague. Given the bio-geographic conditions required for its spread (dense populations in unsanitary and confined spaces) it is unlikely that it spread through caravans or nomadic migrations along silk road. Bubonic plague had been endemic around Mediterranean / Black Sea / Caucasus region since 1<sup>st</sup> millennium AD, probably originating in Pharaonic Egypt or east Africa. Constantinople was famously afflicted by the plague of Justinian in 6<sup>th</sup> century AD. The start of the second plague in 1347 was first recorded in the Tartar forces (who were part of the Mongolian army besieging the Genoese on Caspian sea), and the Genoese carried the plague to the cities of the Mediterranean 1347. The link to the Mongolian army is only by association, and there is no evidence to support a Mongolian origin. In fact, as Benedictow notes, the consolidation of the different Mongolian empires disrupted previously established Silk Road trade routes, and would have had a negative effect on the spread of plague.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:navy'>CRISPIAN OLVER</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:navy'>Postnet Suite 118, Private Bag X7 Parkview 2122 </span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:navy'>c. +27825680415 w. +27 11 646 5553 skype: crispian.olver</span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="mailto:colver@iafrica.com"><span style='color:navy'>colver@iafrica.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US> State <state-bounces@lists.wiser.org.za> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Karl von Holdt<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, 02 April 2021 11:26<br><b>To:</b> state@lists.wiser.org.za<br><b>Subject:</b> [State@Wits] FW: Black Death - Wikipedia<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p>Hi everyone who attended yesterday's session!<o:p></o:p></p><p>Regarding the controversy over where the Black Death came from – the Wikipedia entry suggests that it spread from the Mongol army besieging a town in the Crimea, and from where there was spread by Genoese traders into Constantinople and the Mediterranean. No doubt there are other explanations as well, but the link to the silk roads and the Mongol Empire by Anievas and Nisancioglu is not a wild Trotskyist plot!<o:p></o:p></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death"><span style='color:#0563C1'>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p>Karl von Holdt<o:p></o:p></p><p>Professor<o:p></o:p></p><p>t: 27 11 717 4456/60 | f: 27 11 717 4469 | c: 083 654 4359<o:p></o:p></p><p>e: <a href="mailto:karl@yeoville.org.za">karl@yeoville.org.za</a> | <a href="mailto:karl.vonholdt@wits.ac.za">karl.vonholdt@wits.ac.za</a><o:p></o:p></p><p>Join us: Please visit ourWebsite <a href="http://www.swop.org.za/">http://www.swop.org.za/</a> for news, recent publications and more!<o:p></o:p></p><p>Political economy of corruption <o:p></o:p></p><p><a href="https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/de7bea_4af1b6269b7641378ad82eddec29f4c7.pdf">https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/de7bea_4af1b6269b7641378ad82eddec29f4c7.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p><span lang=EN-US>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Karl Von Holdt <<a href="mailto:karl@yeoville.org.za">karl@yeoville.org.za</a>><br>Sent: Thursday, 01 April 2021 18:33<br>To: <a href="mailto:karl@yeoville.org.za">karl@yeoville.org.za</a><br>Subject: Black Death - Wikipedia</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death</a><o:p></o:p></p><p>Sent from my iPhone<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>