Not only was the price of labour fixed by the Parliament of 1351 but the labour class was once more tied to the soil.

The labourer was forbidden to quit the parish where he lived in search of better paid employment; if he disobeyed he became a "fugitive," and subject to imprisonment at the hands of justices of the peace.

To enforce such a law literally must have been impossible, for corn rose to so high a price that a day's labour at the old wages would not have purchased wheat enough for a man's support.

But the landowners did not flinch from the attempt.

The repeated re-enactment of the law shows the difficulty of applying it and the stubbornness of the struggle which it brought about.