SC - prices in 1520
Christina van Tets
cjvt at hotmail.com
Wed Sep 22 11:42:38 PDT 1999
Hello the list!
I have been reading a text which we bought recently, called 'De Edel Conste
Arithmetica', by Christianus van Varenbrakens. It is an arithmetics
textbook, intended to explain to readers why Arabic numerals are better than
Roman ones (thinking of which, can anyone explain why this current mundane
year is being touted as MCMXCIX, instead of MCMIM or just plain MIM?).
Anyway, the books lists lots of arithmetical examples using everyday prices.
While I recognise that he is using certain numbers to illustrate his
point, he is fairly consistent throughout the book with his prices of
commodities. He was writing in the 1530s in Flanders, but apparently has
pinched a few examples from a work from 1510, hence the compromise date
given in the subject.
Here are some of the prices (I'll only give the food ones here; if you want
the others, please email me privately):
Almonds 2d 20m / lb
Apples 1m / 6 (approx 2 lb?)
Butter 3d / lb
Cheese 1/2d / lb
Cinnamon 1s 4d / lb
Eggs 3d each
Ginger 1s 4d / lb
Nutmeg 2s 8d / lb
Pepper 1s 3d / lb
Saffron 8s 6d / lb
Sugar 6d / lb
I think I worked out last night that 1g of saffron was roughly equal in
price to 30 apples. Now I really understand conspicuous consumption.
So, as said earlier, these are just maths examples. How accurate are they?
Does anyone have any prices from the same sort of period that we can
compare? It would be rather fun to put the period price per head for the
food into the feast notes, or even to create a 'penny feast', where the food
used doesn't add up to more than that per head in the period prices.
Anyway, I'd like to know. Anyone got any input?
Cairistiona
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