Well, as the title said, I am fixing the prices to a more rational level where a healthy medieval economy can survive.
I cited that wheat grains cost about 0.25cp per pound or 15cp per bushel back in vol 0 ch 4. However, after checking, in the 1340s(pre-plague), the wages of your common thatcher is about 3cp a day, and his wife is around 1.25cp(I know, gender inequality, but makes sense since she needs to take care of the house, cook, and pregnancy and kids too, and her physical fitness is usually lesser). Your common unskilled laborer makes only 2cp a day and works only 2 out of 3 days at most. A man cant feed his family and survive with so little money, right?
Well, it turns out that I got the prices of the wheat off by a lot. A bushel(60lb or 27.2kg) of wheat only costs around 6-8cp per unit, if I base the cp around the value of pence at around the 1340s (Pre-plague, important, labor prices jumped from 1349 due to lack of living people). That means if 6.5 pence can buy a bushel, then a pence can buy 4.18kg(9.22lb) of wheat, a stark contrast from the earlier 4lb per pence or cp.
Also, peasants mostly ate barley, oats, and rye, which composed most of their diets. The price of each of them per bushel(60lb) is 4-6cp, 2-3.25cp, and 3.25-6.75cp per unit correspondingly to barley, oats, and rye in that order.
Now, this is starting to look more rational, as your casual laborer that earns around 480cp a year at most (He doesn't work every day, right? Laborers didn't have a permanent contract and needed to help fix the house and such), or around 1.33cp a day, can put about a bushel of barley on their table every three to four days, or around 15-20 pounds of barley a day, which his wife will turn into bread or pancakes for him to eat(If they had an oven to use) or into porridge(More likely, with a bit of added greens), instead of buying it expensively in a shop.
There is also my misconception about the price of bread. If anyone here knows about the Assize of Bread and Ale, there is a direct correlation between the price of wheat and the price of bread. (If there is no bread, eat cake?)
Well, according to this article, a bushel of wheat (60lb) can produce 45 0.8kg loaves of bread or 36kg, or about 80lb. (There is an added water content as well as other ingredients, so it makes sense. Of course, I am talking about whole wheat bread and not white bread.). And according to the article, you can buy around 6.9 loaves of bread for a pence or cp. (Again, whole bread, not white bread. White bread is more expensive in comparison.), or 5.5kg of bread for a pence. That doesn't make much sense when compared to the price of wheat, does it? I find that the guy who did the calculations was a bit faulty, so I decided to just go with the old-fashioned way and make the price of bread 1.25 times more expensive than the price of wheat. This way, the miller and baker can make a bit of profit, instead of losing their pants. So now, the price of bread will be 3.34kg(7.36 lb) per pence.
Oh, right. There is also the price of livestock and other products, right? I will just use the prices from this article, also this article, and the previous article as references.
Wow, so now, your average laborer can get about 14-15 loaves of (brown)bread for a workday, and 10 on average per day a year. That means the average laborer earns $20 per day a year! That also means that a penny is now worth $7.5.
Of course, most peasants in the countryside don't use coins, but barter and credit, so they will get the "money" in the form of goods, such as bread vouchers from the local baker.
I will now summarize the prices that I found here:
Food, cattle, and dairy product prices:
A loaf(1 lb) of bread(brown) = 0.14 pence.
A loaf(1 lb) of bread(white) = 0.3 pence.
Cheese(1 lb) = 0.5 pence.
Price of meat(Stew meat) = 3*price of (brown)bread = 2.45lb per penny.
2 dozen (Small Chicken) eggs = 1 penny.
Ale(Poor quality, also known as disgusting piss) 1 gallon = 0.75 pence. (Yeah, I suggest you buy the average quality one over this.)
Ale(Average Quality) 1 gallon = 1 penny.
Ale(Good Quality) 1 gallon = 1.5 pence.(Allegedly good ale, and probably undiluted)
Chicken(Small, not the larger and fatter modern variant) = 1 penny.
Goose = 6 pence.
A side of bacon(about 8lb) = 15 pence.
1 pound of sugar = 18 pence. (Super expensive luxury item)
Pig = 24/36 pence depending on the type.
Cow = 120 pence. (Approximate)
Bull = 1.5*Cow = 180 pence.
Clothes:
Peasants linen shirt = 8 pence.
Peasants tunic = 36 pence.
landless serf tunic = 1-6 pence.
Cloth for peasant tunic = 8-15 pence.
Peasant Shoes(wealthy) = 6 pence.
Woolen garment(wealthy) = 36 pence.
Fur-lined garments(wealthy) = 80 pence.
Fashionable gown(Super rich merchants or nobility) = 2,400 pence at least, can reach over 10,000 pence.
Armor and weapons:
Leather armor(Probably torso only) = 60 pence.
Seax(A cheap dagger used by peasants, usually crafted by apprentices.) = 6 pence.
Bastard Sword (excellent quality handmade work from a reputable blacksmith, possibly made from higher-end steel) = 2 cows = 120 working days pf laborer = 240 pence.
Complete knight armor(Plate mail) = Approximately 4,000 pence or 2,000 working days, give or take. (The race car of the medieval period, horse not included).
Wages/income(Pre-plague):
Regular folks:(Ye good ol peasant bastards)
Maid = 1 penny/day. (Yeah, women got it the worst.)
Laborer = 2 pence/day.
Thatcher = 3 pence/day.
Carpenter = 4 pence/day.
Master carpenter = 5 pence/day.
Prostitutes: (The oldest profession... that sleeps with and births bastards. The following prices are brothel(or tavern) prices for a given prostitute grade.)
Wretched(The desperate souls who are usually not healthy enough for manual labor. Usually dirty, not pretty or ugly, diseased, and have shitty service.) = half copper a go or 1 cp an hour.
Poor(A not-too-desperate prostitute who works in this shameful profession as a side job in a low-quality brothel. Cleaner, average-looking to poor-looking, a bit more enthusiastic at work, but still high risk of contracting a disease.) = 1 cp a go or 2 cp for an hour.
Common(The common full-time prostitute you will find in a lower-quality brothel or tavern. They are clean, usually of above-average looks, have below-average to above-average skills, and less disease due to proper hygiene.)= 2-3 cp a go or 5 cp an hour.
Experienced() = 1sp a go or 2sp an hour.
Modest = 2-3sp a go or 5sp an hour.
High-class = 1gp a go or 2gp an hour.
Top class = 2gp a go or 4gp an hour.
Mercenaries:(The not-so-honest stabby bastards)
man-at-arms/squire = 12 pence/day.
knight = 24 pence/day.
knight banneret(Usually a veteran knight of high prestige) = 48 pence/day.
(The reason why all of these are knights is probably that knights are from the warrior class, ergo, mercenaries. They also pillage and raid villages, and the code of knightly conduct is a farse. They are essentially a bunch of low-ranking enforcers in armor, working under a capo (a noble) who in turn works under the don(The king))
Regular army:(The honest stabby bastards)
Conscripts(Conscripted peasants (cannon-fodder)) = The cost to feed and arm them and likely a long-term drop in taxable goods. (They were not exactly paid, and usually, didn't live long enough to demand it. Poor bastards.)
Esquires/constable/centenars = 12 pence.
Mounted archers/ light cavalry/ armored infantry/ drafted infantry leader = 6 pence.
Archers/regular infantry = 3 pence/day.
The nobility (The posh bastards):
Baron = 48,000 - 120,000+ pence a year.
Earl = 96,000 - 2,640,000 pence a year.
Crown(At peace times) = Around 7,200,000 pence a year.
Merchants: (The (Usually) corrupt bastards.)
Merchants are not listed because they have no salary. They employ themselves. Hence, you can see both poor-ass merchants that can barely survive, and super-rich tycoons and monopoly holders who are comparable to the billionaires of today. An example is Jakob Fugger(Also aptly known as Jakob Fugger the rich), a slick and corrupt german merchant(And not a noble of any standing) that made his fortune through silver mining, banking, and commercial trading. His estimated net worth is about 2 million gold guilders. His GPD was 2% of all of Europe at the time. He can bankroll an entire dynasty, hire armies, stop wars, and create the first newspaper(yes, he did that). They say his net worth at his time of death is now around 382 billion dollars based on 2022 inflation rates. That sounds kind of ridiculous because a guilder(Florin) only had about 2 grams of gold content at the time, which makes me greatly question the authenticity of that claim. If he had 2 billion guilders, I would understand that claim, however. That said, his net worth was incredibly high, around 48 million pence in 1525. (Because the florin is about 2 shillings = 24 pence.)
Through my current estimates, a penny is about $7.5, so he is worth 360 million dollars based on coin exchange alone at the time. Still a rich bastard.
Horses:
No concrete prices, as it is up to the times and area, but 2 knight horses can be bought for 2,400 pence.
A warhorse can fetch even more, at around 10,000 pence and up. An excellent riding horse can fetch 2,400 to 4,800 pence.
In other words, horses are medieval cars, and your average warhorse is an expensive model. That and full-plate knight armor.
Buildings and Rent:
Rent:
Rent cottage = 60 pence a year.
Rent Craftsman's house = 240 pence a year.
Rent Merchant's house = 480-720 pence a year. (Depends on location and quality I suppose)
Rent for 138 shops(All of them) on london street = around 38,500 pence.
Prices:
Large tiled barn = around 20,000 pence.
Merchant's house = around 16,000 pence.
House with courtyard = around 22,000 pence.
Slaves:(Yeah, they have those. I based this on common sense and references from the internet.)
Male slave(Fit for labour, and not old) = 3 cows = 360 pence. (Yeah, dirt-cheap)
Female slave(Likely of below-average looks, middle-aged or younger) = 2 cows = 240 pence. (I won't go into the hurtful details of why women are valued less than men, but I imagine that most of you can picture why it is like this.)
Female slave(very good looks, a sort of trophy wife/concubine/high-class prostitute material) = 10-15 cows = 1,200-1,800 pence, possibly more depending on education and skills. Possibly the daughter of fallen nobility?
Naturally, you still need to feed and take care of them, so a lot of maintenance.
From now on, I will base the non-magical economy aspect on these prices. Fuck dnd prices, and fuck game balancing.
How do you translate the money now?:
1 pence = 1 cp(Copper piece) = $7.5
1 sp(silver piece) = 10 cp
1 gp(Gold piece) = 10 sp = 100 cp.
In other words, translate pence to cp and the prices above make sense.
Also, I will now specify the weight of the coins.
gp weight = 12g.
Note: You are free to refer to this at any time if you are bored enough. If you find anything to add, tell me, and I will add it. I will also update this list myself whenever I want. Cheers.
Yeah dnd prices are bullshit( speaking as a dm) but i frankly cant be bothered to fix the economy when i run games unless it becomes a problem so this is going to be usefull once i adjust it to campaign setting or in shorter words thanks mate
my world tends to have ridiculous swings in in- and deflation, cause the prices change according to the players purses xD
I like that you’re using logic and research to set prices of things, not just arbitrarily setting a random price.
impressive