Talk:Statute of Labourers 1351

Relevance of first reference
The first reference cites a 1971 ruling of a court in Florida. There is no reference in that article to the Statute of Labourers 1351 - it appears to be completely irrelevant. Should it not be deleted? Philipt8520 (talk) 22:04, 17 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Although not the best reference it does mention the Statute of Labourers in the following paragraph:


 * Jacksonville's ordinance and Florida's statute were "derived from early English law," Johnson v. State, 202 So.2d, at 854, and employ "archaic language" in their definitions of vagrants. Id., at 855. The history is an oftentold tale. The breakup of feudal estates in England led to labor shortages which in turn resulted in the Statutes of Laborers, 3 designed to stabilize the labor force by prohibiting increases in wages and prohibiting the movement of workers from their home areas in search of improved conditions. Later vagrancy laws became criminal aspects of the poor laws. The series of laws passed in England on the subject became increasingly severe. 4  [405 U.S. 156, 162]   But "the theory of the Elizabethan poor laws no longer fits the facts," Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160, 174 . The conditions which spawned these laws may be gone, but the archaic classifications remain.


 * I would keep the reference until a better reference is found. Guest2625 (talk) 04:11, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Contradictory texts
The External links section gives two links to what are claimed to be the text of the Act. They differ significantly. DuncanHill (talk) 21:24, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, you are correct. Interesting - and both documents are claimed to come from different compilations. We need to identify an archive with a claim as a primary source.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  22:21, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
 * The National Archives have a transcript and translation here, and an image of the Statute here. DuncanHill (talk) 22:25, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Okay, that matches the Fordham text but not the Yale text. I found a copy of the Yale text at en:s:Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages/Book I/The Statute of Laborers so it seems no need to link to their archive. Next step for anyone who wants to do so could be to move that National Archive text and translation to Wikisource.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  14:46, 14 November 2019 (UTC)