Editing Price revolution (section)

===Black Death===
{{main|Black Death}}
Demographic factors also contributed to upward pressure on prices with the resurgence of European population growth after the century of depopulation following the Black Death (1347–1353).<ref name=bd/> The price of food rose during the years of the plague, and then began to fall as the population of nations decreased.<ref name="Hamilton, Earl J. 1650"/><ref name=bd2/> At the same time prices of manufactured goods rose because of a displacement of supply.<ref name=bd3 /> As the nations began to recover and repopulate after the Black Death, the increase in population placed greater demands on agriculture. Later on, increased population placed greater demands on an agricultural area that had contracted significantly after the 1340s, or had been converted from arable to less intensive [[livestock]] production.{{Citation needed|date=March 2015}}

However, population growth and recovery in countries such as England are not consistent with inflation during the early stages of the price revolution. In 1520 at the beginning of the price revolution England's population was roughly 2.5 million people.<ref name="Hamilton, Earl J. 1650"/> This is about half of the English population of 5 million in 1300.<ref name="Hamilton, Earl J. 1650"/> Critics of the population argument raise the question that if England at the beginning stages of the price revolution was very unpopulated, how could any renewed growth from such a low level immediately spark inflation? It can be argued that population growth led to a price increase in the agrarian sector because of an increase demand for food. Marginal lands that were not very fertile and far away from markets were unable to adopt the technological developments to offset the lower returns of farming. In turn this led to a higher [[marginal cost]] to farming and resulted in a price increase for grains and other agricultural goods that surpassed the price increase for non-agrarian commodities during the 16th and beginning of the 17th century.<ref name="Hamilton, Earl J. 1650"/> The resurgence of population after the plague is linked with the demand-pull explanation of the price revolution. This "demand-pull" theory states that an increase in the demand for money and the growth of economic activity produced the rise in prices and a pressure to increase the supply of money.<ref name=supply />