SC - > So long as we are making assumptions . . . . . . .

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > supposedly 4 pence a pound.
> 
> And in the quantities normally bought by individuals which are considerably
> less than a pound, they would have been well within the reach of most folks
> except the poorest of the poor. 

Maybe, but let's do a little math exercise here. 1/4 pound, be it troy
or avoirdupois, for a penny, which is a silver coin commonly thought to
represent the earning capacity of a laborer for a day. If that's the
case, then we're talking about an ounce of grains of paradise at roughly
1/4 to 1/3 of a laborer's (not the poorest of the poor) daily wage. Of
course they wouldn't be buying an ounce a day or anything, but given the
percentage of likely savings and/or disposable income for a laborer,
what would you guess the likelihood was that grains of paradise were a
regular part of the diet of, say, the lower middle class, whatever that is...

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com