The Black Death - a thread
In Jan 1347 the government of a city-state Dubrovnik was discussing the execution of last wills and noticed a weird thing. For some reason, most of executors and witnesses were already dead. They wondered why, but nobody realised it is the epidemic.
Once they realised what was going on, they had to decide whether to close city or not. They decided not to, because the city lived off commerce. By March they had to open new burial sites as the old ones were full.
The authorities were afraid that the city could lose its population and significance. Therefore, leaving the town was prohibited except for business. Commercial contacts and transactions continued, while the plague was depopulating the region.
To combat the depopulation, the government 1) liberalised the immigration regime allowing craftsmen from other towns to move to Dubrovnik and exempting them from taxes for 5 years 2) pardoned the exiles, inviting them to return. They had to repeat the invitation twice.
Surprisingly, from the economic perspective there was not much difference between Dubrovnik which did nothing and Milano that introduced harsh anti-epidemic measures. It seems Dubrovnik suffered bigger human losses, but they were quickly compensated through immigration
However, after the new waves of the Plague stroke in the 1360s and the 1370s, in 1377 Dubrovnik adopted a stricter policy and introduced a Venetian-style quarantine. All people and goods from ships coming to the city had to remain in a special district for 40 days.
Source - Gordan Ravančić. Black Death of 1348 in Dubrovnik: Beginning of a Crisis or a Disruption?
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