What Did Medieval Items Really Cost? And How Much Did An Archer Make?

Luminaries.org has an interesting list of prices of medieval items (compiled by Kenneth Hodges). It consisted of extracted references from books such as English Wayfaring Life in the XIVth Century, J. J. Jusserand, London in the Age of Chaucer, A. R. Myers, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages, Christopher Dyer, English Weapons & Warfare, 449-1660, A. V. B. Norman and Don Potting, and several more. It includes tools, food, livestock, books, education, buildings, clothing, armor, weapons, funerals, and travel; and includes wages for various professions from mercenaries to weavers to kitchen servants to barons! It makes for a fascinating read and a great resource for medieval fantasy games. (Thanks to Jay for the scoop!)

The image below is just the "WAGES" section -- click on it for the full thing!
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[Celebrim]

Some more random facts:

Pound refers to a pound of silver, 240 pennies are 1/240th of a pound.
Marks were in gold and were used as apologies or special gifts.
Pennies were cut in half and quarters, literal half/quarter pennies.
In medieval England the only actual coin was the silver penny (other denominations were basically accounting terms)

Adding to this, in terms of the table, the 'silver penny' was a very small coin much smaller than the silver schilling in the above pricing table. The silver penny was 1/240th of a pound of silver, where as the schilling was 1/20th of a pound of silver.

The silver penny was roughly one day's labor for a common laborer at the beginning of the middle ages. There was as I've said a small inflationary trend through the period, so it wasn't unusual to see laborers demanding 2-3 silver pennies per day by the end of the period.

Copper coinage is standard fare in D&D, but if you are going for realism copper coinage should be a huge source of controversy, because the value on the face of the coin is generally much higher than the actual worth of the coin as metal. This would tend to lead to people not wanting to be paid in copper for any transaction at all, and certainly not one of value. (Indeed, the same problem occurs to a lesser extent when trying to pay in silver once the value of the transaction gets high enough.) And copper is consequently absolutely useless for international transactions, and a trove of ancient copper coins from some forgotten empire... it's pretty much got no value except to collectors.

However, I agree with barasawa to a certain extent. Realistic coinage - moneychangers, weird denominations, etc. - is one of those areas that in practice is not very fun to deal with, and gamist simplifications are often very worthwhile for sanities sake, particularly if you have a large party rather than just 1-2 players and can't afford to lavish attention on small matters.

 

[tomBitonti]

With some approximations:

[sblock]

Income (d/day) (/d @$5/d)

Royalty:
  King                                  20000           $100000
  Baron                                 130 - 330 (+)   $650 - $1650
  Earl                                  260 - 7200 (+)  $1300 - $7200

Mercenary:
  Knight Banneret                       48              $240
  Knight                                24              $120
  Man-at-arms, Squire                   12              $60

Regular Army:
  Esquire, Constable, Centenar          12              $60
  Mounted Archer, Armored infantry,     6               $30
    Hobilar, Vintenar
  Welsh vintenar                        4               $20
  Archer                                3               $15
  Welsh infantry                        2               $10
  Captain                               96              $480
  Lieutenant                            48              $240
  Ensign                                24              $120
  Drummer, Trumpeter                    20              $100
  Cavalryman                            18              $90
  Infantry                              8               $40

Laborer                                 1.3             $8

Sergeant at Law (top lawyer)            200             $1000
Chief armorer                           11              $55
Other armorer (same shop)               10              $50
"Old Martyn" (same shop)                16              $80
Apprentice (same shop)                  6               $30
Master Mason                            4               $20
Master Carpenter                        3               $15
Carpenter's Guild stipend to sick       2               $10
Weaver                                  5               $25
Chantry priest                          3               $15
Squire                                  0.44 - 0.66     $2.4 - $3.3
Carter, Porter, Falconer                0.16 - 0.28     $0.8 - $1.4
  Groom, Messenger
Kitchen servant                         0.07 - 0.13     $0.35 - $0.65
Boy, Page                               0.03 - 0.2      $0.15 - $1.0
Warden of London bridges                6.6             $33

[/sblock]

Thx!
TomB

 

[Morrus]

Could you avoid the code tag if possible, guys? Turns out it completely messes up the thread in the mobile skin.

 

[Rhineglade]

The "d" stood for denier which was kind of like a copper penny. I try to make it very simple and say 1 d = 1 cp, 1 s = 1 sp and 1 p = 1 gp. Of course that's not completely accurate but it works for me

 

[Hand of Evil]

Glad I use a silver based system in my games

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Ah, taking the king's shilling!

 

[barasawa]

Thanks for the comments

I know the UK was still using the old system not that long ago. The point is it's a confusing system. What can I say, I like systems where there's one rule for each denomination change, like base 10 numbers.

By the way, if I didn't make it clear, the compilation and all the other work the author did was great. My wording and explanations may have been written poorly, but I do subscribe to the concept that you can't make something better if you can't identify possible issues.

 

[Barantor]

Hmm, wonder what a loaf of bread cost at that time? If you had that you could extrapolate a whole economy fairly easy.

 

[tomBitonti]

Can someone edit my post? When I try to edit it I get an "invalid post" error.

That would be to fix the "code" tag, however is appropriate. The table relies on use of a fixed width font.

Edit: Never mind! Someone already fixed it.

Thx!
TomB

 

[Jhaelen]

Could you avoid the code tag if possible, guys? Turns out it completely messes up the thread in the mobile skin.

Tough luck for mobile users, I guess.
I mean, what's the alternative?!