SC - prices in 1520
Elysant at aol.com
Elysant at aol.com
Wed Sep 22 17:34:35 PDT 1999
- -Poster: <Elysant at aol.com>
> What is being used is the Troy measurement system as adopted by the
> English
> for their currency, where the base of 1 Troy pound of silver equals 1 L
> sterling. Troy measures were commonly used in currency and precious metal
> conversions across Europe and therefore make a common base for evaluating
> prices. I suspect that the conversion from guilders and stuivers to Troy
is
> because the silver penny and its equivalents were the most common measure
of
> value in medieval Europe.
> To my knowledge, Troy measure was not used for measuring commodities (other
> than bread and precious metals) so the price per pound is likely based on
> the 16 ounce Avoirdupois pound.
This use of weights is also discussed in one of the medieval price list
articles I have. It is a web page, so for those interested, here's the URL:
http://www.regia.org/costs.htm
On the first page the author states:
"...In its simplest form Early English money was divided into pounds,
shillings and pence. Unfortunately the subdivisions were not the same as our
pre-decimal coinage. The pound was the Troy pound (approx 11.5 modern ounces
or 373 g) divided into 240 pennies (making a Saxon penny about 1.55g). To
make matters even more complicated, the shilling did not have a constant
value, varying from 4 - 6 pence, not on the more recent 12 pence".
The other list I have lists items from various times during the MA and is
compiled from several different book sources.
A few cooking related items from that list include:
Dried fruit (e.g. raisins, dates, 1 - 4d/lb, up to 6d rare
?14th c
figs, prunes) almonds rice
Spices (cannamon, cloves, mace, 1 - 3s/lb
?14th c
pepper, sugar etc.)
Saffron 12 - 15s/lb ?14th c
Wine Best Gascon in London 4d/gallon 1331
Best Rhenish in London 8d/gallon 1331
Cow 6s 1285 - 1290
Sheep 1s 5d mid 14th c
Pig Somerset 2s 1338
London 3s 1338
2 chickens 1d 14th c
2 dozen eggs 1d 14th c
80 lb cheese 3s 4d late 13 c
Salted herring (wholesale) 5 - 10/1d 1382
Oats London 1s/quarter 1338
Also mentioned:
Cost of feeding a knight's or L30 - 60 15th c
merchant's household per year up to L100 15th c
Elysant
============================================================================
To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
============================================================================
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list