In 1347, on a typical day one ship landed in Messina, which was nothing out of the ordinary. However on this ship all the crew were sick with a disease from the Orient. The Black Plaque had arrived in Europe and by 1351 between 25 to 50% of Europe’s population was dead. With those types of results many things changed in Europe and many volumes of books have been written about it. The approach Robert Gottried took in his book The Black Death published by The Free Press, London, UK, 1983 was the environmental one.

About 50% of the population of Europe and countries around the Mediterranean were lost to the Black Plaque and people reacted the way people have always reacted in a variety of ways. Since the disease attacked people no matter their economic situation leadership changes happened and the old social and religious bonds were loosen. Partly because there was no other choice and partly because it was time for a change. For many years Europe was in a feudal situation but after the plaques there was a shortage of people to do the work necessary. Wages and hours went up and there was a new sense of time. Prior to the plaques people lived their lives according to the sun, afterwards more clocks were built – to be chimed or the modern equivalent is the factory whistle. Another change was in clerics or ministers – the doctors in many communities were the priests or clerics – in the evaluation of their work much was ineffective. The result was new medical schools and hospitals partly funded by charity to improve medical care and research.

In art there were two trends – one was the cynical process and the other which tends to be seen in great art works of the day is a prominence given to the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The Black Plaque, the author believes was one of the greatest transformational event of Europe both from an environmental point of view and social point of view. If you think about our times or it seems the environment is changing which means society has to change one way or another.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in all crisis there are many ways to react because we are humans and none is necessarily wrong or right. Ideally you can still look to the future because there will be opportunities which come up. Some prices will fall because it needs to be changed; some will rise because prices have fallen – an optimistic person will thing of rebuilding which adds value. Crisis will affect everyone a little differently, hopefully you will always look to the better part of the future.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.