Slave prices

[jasper]

how much do the players have.
all of it.

 

[Telperion]

how much do the players have.
all of it.

About 40 000 gp. I'm not totally certain about the exact amount. That's several years of savings, though.

 

[S'mon]

Here are the prices from the new Conan RPG. Conan uses the silver standard to change the sp to gp.

Slave, female, beautiful 60sp
Slave, female, common 30sp
Slave, female, high-born, educated, beautiful 150sp
Slave, male, rebellious savage 5sp
Slave, male, work-shy criminal 8sp
Slave, male, hard-working and submissive 15sp


Plus you can order a particular individual kidnaped and made a slave for double the price! Gotta love Conan

I noticed this in Conan - I guess these prices are based off 17th century Araby, where women cost more because they were captured less often.
In most times & cultures, a "male, hard-working and submissive" slave would be worth a lot more than a "female, common" - around twice as much from what I can remember of a table of slave prices from ancient Athens, priced in obols. AIR a woman was 30-60, man 60-120, child 10-15. Prices for common slaves are based off the work they can do, stronger = more expensive.
For typical D&D setting I'd suggest 15gp for common female slave, 30gp for common male slave. Recent war-captives would be less, educated slaves much more. I have no idea why an elf child would be worth more than a human child, unless it's because they're more decorative. They take longer to grow up and become useful labourers. Actually IMC I reckon elves generally just die if enslaved.

Edit: if your campaign setting resembles antebellum slaveholding USA, multiply prices by around 10 - so male slave labourer ca 300gp.

 

[Numion]

1. By core rules your average human being will live 70 + 2d10 years. Should the slave be captured at the age of 20, and nothing happens to him, then he should be good for at least 50 years of work. In one form or another.

Actually the core rules state that the aging tables are for player characters only. "Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections, or violence before achieving the venerable age range" - PHB 3.0E page 93.

 

[Will]

Keep in mind the bit on standard of living in the DMG... (variant: upkeep cost)

Yeah, it's a variant, but I think it meshes with the rules, even if people don't bother.

Essentially, the lowest cost of living is 2 gp/month, just to barely get by. Common laborers are paid 3 gp/month.

So slaves will probably cost at _least_ 1 gp/month to keep barely alive (work them until they drop dead), and 2 gp/month to work as field hands. Slaves with better hygeine will probably need more.

Just something to add to the calculations.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Here's the BASE cost of slaves from the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide, not including the tables of modifiers for age, ability scores and race.

Unskilled (no useful skills, avg Str): 10 gp
Laborer (adult w/no exceptional skills): 25 gp/NPC level
Craftsman (ranks in at least 1 useful Craft skill): 75 gp/NPC level
Scholar (ranks in at least 1 useful Knowledge skill): 60 gp/NPC level
Adventurer: 100 gp/character level

 

[Agback]

Edit: if your campaign setting resembles antebellum slaveholding USA, multiply prices by around 10.

Actually the price of slaves in the Antebellum South rose enormously after the international community cut off the Atlantic slave trade. In 1792 the average price of a prime field hand was $300, In 1808 (when the slave trade was suppressed) it jumped to $600. Over the next fifty-odd years it rose steadily to $1200. There was some inflation in that time, but not much: most of this is a real price increse of a factor nearly of four.

At 1860 the wage of unskilled labour was $1.14 per day (average over the whole USA), but only 77 cents per day in (slave-owning) North Carolina. Thus the peak price of slaves (under conditions where importation had been cut off for fifty years) was about 1,558 day's wages, or the equivalent of 156 gp for a labourer in D&D.

While Googling for the information above I came across the following statement about relative prices, which may be of some interest: "There was always a great difference between the values of individual slaves. When the average price of negroes ranged about $500, prime field hands brought, say, $1,000, and skilled artisans still more. At that rate, an infant would be valued at about $100, a boy of twelve years and a man of fifty at about $500 each, and a prime wench for field work at $800 or $900."

There is lots of good information at this site.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Dogbrain]

I did a bit of digging, and it seems that, around 1800, in the Deep South, an average price for a slave (agricultural chattel worker) was around $125. At the same time, a free laborer made about 50 to 60 cents a week. This was a day labor rate, all cash payment, no clothes or food supplied. This doesn't agree with other posted figures, but that's the way of such studies.

So, I'd say that a ratio to start with might be this:

Grown common labor slave: 200-500 times the weekly wage of a day laborer.

Adjust accordingly.

It also seems that the primary determinant of slave prices in Louisiana was the price of rice grown on the plantations.

 

[Knightfall]

Demand drives prices and while an average price is okay it is really just a maintenance fee for replacements.

Trust the Hand. "Evil is as evil does" or something like that.

 

[Agback]

Assuming that slaves are imported fairly freely, so that prices reflect something more like the USA around 1790 rather than the South around 1860:

So how much for a human child?: About 4 gp.

How much more for an elven child (long life-span and all)?: Curiosity value. The long lifespan doesn't make much difference in the discount calculation.

For a grown woman? : 32 gp

For a healthy and strong man? : 40 gp

How much for a trained professional? : maybe 80-120 gp.

If slaves are rarely imported, and basically have to be bred and raised, about four times those figures.

Regards,


Agback