Post-Plague Economic Recovery in Florence

Name: Post-Plague Economic Recovery in Florence
Start: 1351
End: 1360

Type Event Region Europe Time 1351–1360

The Black Death of 1348 reduced Florence's population by about half, but in the 1350s the city rapidly achieved economic and social recovery.…

Timeline

1348–1350Florence · TuscanyThe Black Death of 1348 entered Florence via Pisa; according to Boccaccio's Decameron and municipal records, the city's population plummeted from about 100,000 to around 50,000, textile workshops shut down, commercial credit was interrupted, and a great deal of property was redistributed for lack of heirs.
1351–1356Florence · TuscanyThe wool guild reorganized production, migrants from elsewhere and rural populations flooded in to fill the labor gap, and rising wages stimulated consumption. Shipping on the Arno and raw material supplies from the surrounding countryside were restored, and Florentine woolens once again sold in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
1355–1360Florence · TuscanyAfter the bankruptcies of the great houses Bardi and Peruzzi, small and medium banking families took over international credit, and new forces such as the family that preceded the Medici rose. Municipal tax revenue and public debt repayment gradually recovered, enabling the republic to maintain control over Tuscan towns and continue funding public buildings.