 Over the next few decades , economic opportunities increased for the English peasantry . Some labourers took up specialist jobs that would have previously been barred to them , and others moved from employer to employer , or became servants in richer households . These changes were keenly felt across the south @-@ east of England , where the London market created a wide range of opportunities for farmers and artisans . Local lords had the right to prevent serfs from leaving their manors , but when serfs found themselves blocked in the manorial courts , many simply left to work illegally on manors elsewhere . Wages continued to rise , and between the 1340s and the 1380s the purchasing power of rural labourers increased by around 40 percent . As the wealth of the lower classes increased , Parliament brought in fresh laws in 1363 to prevent them from consuming expensive goods formerly only affordable by the elite . These sumptuary laws proved unenforceable , but the wider labour laws continued to be firmly applied . 
