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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 3715012" data-attributes="member: 1645">I will readily admit that I do not understand what you're trying to ask.  The rules list typical prices and typical wages.  If you want to know how much a silver piece buys, the rules tell you.  If you want to know how much money a laborer makes, the rules tell you.If you want a feel for how people view money though, you need to take yourself out of 21st-century America and its modern market economy and look at how people live in pre-industrial economies around the world or in our own history.Saying that one silver piece is enough to buy a cheap outfit is one thing.  Realizing that most people only own one set of clothing, and that they replace it annually, puts things in a different perspective.Saying that three silver pieces is enough to buy a chunk of meat is one thing.  Realizing that most people can't put meat on the table even once per week puts things in a different perspective.You don't have to spend much time in a less-developed country to get a feel for such things.When I speak of a modern economy, my concern is not that the paper money is fiat money, or that the government tries to manage business cycles by increasing spending during a recession, etc.The distinction is far more fundamental.  A modern economy tends to be a monetary economy, where complete strangers make monetary transactions on a daily basis, and even fairly unskilled laborers are many times more productive than medieval laborers, because they're working within an efficient system bolstered by high-tech capital equipment.In a pre-modern economy, virtually everyone is subsistence-farming, producing barely enough to survive.  There's a reason modern Americans and Europeans are a head taller than they used to be -- and than subsistence-farmers around the world today.  How much is one silver piece worth to such a person?</blockquote>

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