The symptoms appeared one to three days after exposure. Thereafter came the septicemic plague which spread quickly through out Europe, but it became erratic, it seemed to skip towns and areas. Still the effects of the plague seemed worse in cities,furthermore out breaks seem to come in cycles, in January cases of the plague seemed to lessen by the cold weather but in spring with the warm weather it increased. .
Before the Black Plague, environmental changes were taking place throughout Europe. Europe began going through "a period that was called a" little ice age."(307,Spielvogel) People noticed winters were getting colder, summers were suddenly cool and wet. Therefore, fields were turned into rivers and poor harvest sent food prices soaring. Soon famine set in and people turned to eating what it took to stay alive including each other - they resorted to cannibalism. However, before the weather changed, the grain turned to mold and the continent was producing more garbage then it could dispose of. Consequently, "modern experience shows that ecological upheaval in the form of droughts, floods, and earthquakes can play a role in igniting plague, usually because such events dislodge remote wild rodent community."(116,Kelly) Yet, who would expect a rat to carry such a devastating disease. As a result of lower population through the result of death and migration, there were not enough workers to work the land so wages and prices rose, land values plummeted, and rents dropped. Peasants benefitted through increased employment and higher wages. " The Ordinance(1349)and Statute(1351) of Laborers tried to set maximum wages at the levels of the pre-Black Death years, but strict enforcement proved impossible.
