I have read one analysis that suggests that due to the surplus of textiles caused by so many deaths, one consequence was that people began replacing their flax clothing before it was completely useless. This allowed for the recycling of discarded clothing into less expensive and larger scale paper manufacturing that pressured the printing industry to greater efficiency, spurring the development of moveable type printing. That allowed for the inexpensive manufacturing of books that resulted in a literacy boom, and its liberating and democratizing influence.
nothing happens in a vacuum, everything effects everything else.