A Journal Of The Plague Year

The narrator elaborates on the city’s unpreparedness. He explains that, with the advent of the plague, most of the city’s non-essential business ceases, from manufacturing to shipping to construction. Deprived of their work by the exit of the upper class and the cessation of trade, the poor are as likely to die by starvation as by the plague. He notes that the poor might have turned to riot and looting if not for the charity of the wealthy; the lack of provisions even in the home of the wealthy; and public measures to employ them as watchmen for shut-up houses.

By September, 30,000 to 40,000 of the poor died, relieving the city from the “unsufferable Burden” (95) of supporting them. The narrator goes on to talk about the progress of the plague more generally, speculating that, while official estimates named less than 70,000 dead, he believes more than 100,000 had died. He notes that many of the ill went out into the country and died in the fields. As the plague increased in intensity, people became so cautious as to even refuse to pick up a wallet in the street. Supporting this point, he tells the tale of a poor man who lives on his boat, delivering provisions to several families that have taken to living on ships.