Mediaeval prices

[Brian G Turner]

I don't know if everyone can access this fine, but here's a section from a FutureLearn course I'm currently doing on the War of the Roses, where they mention mediaeval prices:

Page from England in the Time of King Richard III - University of Leicester

Ale/beer 1 gallon = 0.5d
Candles 10 = 1d
Cheese 1 large cheese = 6d
Cloves (spice) 1 bag = 2s
Cow hides 10 = 1s
Eggs 10 = 6d
Fish 1 barrel herring = 6s
Fuel (wood) 40 bundles = 1s
Linen (for clothes) 1 yard = 4d
Wool 1 yard = 3s
Rabbits 1 = 2d
Wheat grains 1 bushel = 1s
Wine 1 gallon = 8d
Pheasant 1 = 1s

Interestingly enough, if you're working a supermarket for 5 hours per day at £8/hour, your daily wage will be £40.

In other words, for a comparison to modern prices, treat 1d = £10.

That makes the prices a little more interesting to look at.

 

[sknox]

I got this:
To view this page, join this free online course:
England in the Time of King Richard III
University of Leicester

 

[The Judge]

Same here.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Okay, I've attached an image - can you see that fine?

 

[HareBrain]

In other words, for a comparison to modern prices, treat 1d = £10.

That makes the prices a little more interesting to look at.

A pound of cheese = £60, which sounds ballpark for Lincolnshire Poacher from Waitrose (amiright?) but £6 per egg sounds incredible. Were chickens that scarce?

It does show, though, how relatively cheap industrial farming has made food.

 

[The Big Peat]

A pound of cheese = £60, which sounds ballpark for Lincolnshire Poacher from Waitrose (amiright?) but £6 per egg sounds incredible. Were chickens that scarce?

It does show, though, how relatively cheap industrial farming has made food.

Possible I suppose that there were plenty of eggs, but very few people willing to sell theirs.

Still - I googled medieval food prices and this was the first hit and it says two dozen for 1d - I don't know how accurate it is or what period, but that's quite a bit difference.

 

[The Judge]

Yep, can see that fine, Brian.

Chickens weren't scarce, but they hadn't been bred to be prolific layers. To quote from an earlier post of mine at Mediaeval living questions

Chickens were ubiquitous. in the late C12th the Bishop of Durham's tenants made payment in kind of nearly 3000 hens each year. And chickens and eggs were the last items that were made as payment in kind when all others were commuted to coin in the late C14th. A hen might produce 100 eggs a year, which was much the same until the early C20th (nowadays it's 280-300pa).

And for prices

the kind of things one might buy for 1d in the late C13th . . . 4 loaves bread; 1 chicken; 1¼ pints honey; 2 oz pepper; 2 lbs cheese; dozen eggs; 12½ herrings; 16 pints ale; 2 bottles French wine; 6 bottles English wine; 68 pears; 84 apples.

Prices could fluctuate alarmingly -- a season of bad weather would be devastating for crops and livestock, or for moving produce from farmer to town, so it's always going to be hard to generalise.

 

[sknox]

The Judge has it. I love medieval price lists, having once been an economic historian for my sins, but when folks start drawing modern parallels, I raise warning flags. There's simply no basis for comparison. The best stuff works out how long a person would have to labor to eat for a day. That allows comparisons across trades, but can also allow a meaningful comparison across centuries.

The differences between then and now are profound. As The Judge says, prices fluctuated wildly--far more than would or could be tolerated in a modern industrial society. Moreover, we spend large sums of money on things that simply didn't exist back then. How much does a business class airline ticket from London to Rome cost in florins? Or, how much for a wooden plow in Euros? What's it cost for a pair of handmade shoes?

The best use for price lists is to stick to the time and place. Then the numbers carry some weight. Be careful of trying to apply them anywhere else. Or anywhen.

 

[thaddeus6th]

An interesting thing is that there were minimum wages for jobs in the 14th century, and in shortages a master mason would negotiate their wage upwards, but maximum wages in the 17th, which meant even skilled people could struggle to make ends meet.

Also, specific events (namely the Black Death) could have massive pricing implications. Decline of workers (due to death) meant decline in food, because there weren't enough people to work the land, so prices go up (also fuelled by said workers bargaining for more pay). But prices of other things probably declined sharply (weapons, for example, given there's suddenly a lot of spears, bows, swords etc whose owners won't be needing them).