[Ansteorra] RE: Interesting site - Costs
Marc Carlson
marccarlson20 at hotmail.com
Fri Nov 25 08:34:31 PST 2005
>From: L T <ldeerslayer at yahoo.com>
>Costs in Medieval Times
> http://members.tripod.com/Lord_Eadric/medieval.html
> I can't garuntee how accurate this is...but it would be a starting
>place for those who wanted to
>get more indepth with their personas
And as that - a foundation to give a general ballpark idea of costs and
such, it's probably not a bad thing. And as a gaming source it's just fine
(since that's what it was compiled for :) )
There are some issues that make it problematic for anything more serious,
even if all the details are accurate. The most obvious of which that not
everywhere in the Middle Ages uses English money (although there are a lot
of similarities in coinage systems and relative worths). Also, these are
prices from a wide area of time, and with inflation, coin debasements, and
so on, some prices may not be evenly comparable.
For an interesting comparison, in 1349/1350 in London, a regulation was
passed regarding prices and wages, and detailing many of these. Found in
24 Edward III. AD. 1350, Letter-Book F. fol. clxxxi
"Regulations as to wages and prices in the City"; and translated and printed
in Riley's Memorials (and reprinted at
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/histshoe/RileysMemorial/Fclxxxi.htm)
It is believed that these regulations were passed to try to limit price
gouging and inflation in the wake of the Plague and is itself indicative
that the the prices were moving around. It would be interesting to know
what wages and prices were outside of London (since prices in London have
traditionally been higher than elsewhere).
Marc/Diarmaid
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