Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6558752" data-attributes="member: 42582">The reference I am using is Ian Mortimer, 'The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England' (Vintage, 2009). On pages 149-51 Mortimer sets out two inventories, with valuations, of merchants' houses: one from London in 1337, one from Boston, Lincolnshire in 1383.I'm not going to type up the lists in full, but here are some highlights:One old linen sheet 1d Two pillows 3d Five cushions 6d Seven linen sheets 5s Eight pairs of sheets £2 Six blankets and one serge 13s 6d One iron spit 3d One great basin 6s 8d Three brass pots 2s One brass pot 6s Three brass pots 40s Six silver spoons 6s Six plates of silver £2 10s Six casks of wine £4 Firewood 3s Two hawks and a gentle falcon £10Now this around 300 years after the sale of the relic, and so inflation will certainly have had some effect. (Though presumably the black death also caused deflation in respect of some goods, as demand dropped dramatically.)Nevertheless, it suggest to me that 1 mark is not all that pricey for a luxury item.I think that you might have reversed cause and effect here. The extravagance of the reliquary establishes the value of the relic; it is not an expression of the relic's prior (commercial) value.</blockquote>