# spend power of 15th Century money in 21th Century terms



## lwhitehead (Nov 18, 2016)

Hi I was wondering what is the spending power of 15th Century Money in  21th Century terms, there were Three type of cash Gold coins, Sliver Coins, and Penny like Coins that were made out of Silver but were the lowest Coins to spend with.


LW


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## lwhitehead (Nov 19, 2016)

Folks I need help on this?,


LW


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## JustRob (Nov 19, 2016)

For a project in Victorian history I was trying to work out just how wealthy an Australian businessman was in modern terms, but even that was difficult. Wealth, purchasing power and affluence all follow different courses as different aspects of society change, so I couldn't get a single number for his net worth despite knowing the value of his estate at that time. The results even over that relatively short period compared to your problem varied widely but I concluded that he was probably by our standards a billionaire.

The best approach to your problem would be to track down historical records of the accounts kept by large estates and castles at the time in question. These often mention quantities of provisions and their costs, from which you can get a good idea of the purchasing power of the money then. The relationship between the gold, silver and bronze coinage (if any) should be a fixed ratio.

P.S.
On reflection, another source might be ecclesiastical records. Clerics could at least write and were always keeping an eye on the cost of things, both for themselves and the poor people whom they supported. Bear in mind that in the 15th century the English language was only beginning to be formalised and the legal languages were Latin and French. At that time English was for the lower classes.

I'm no historian, far from it, but I did have the need to look at The Chronicle of the Grey Friars which covers that sort of period but mainly the times around 1550. Take a look at it to see the sort of thing that you may have to deal with. This is historical rather than accounts though. In the early 16th century the area around Greyfriars in London was a centre of learning, one of the main universities of the time in effect. The Whittington Library, funded by Dick himself, was there.


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## lwhitehead (Nov 19, 2016)

Well as we know Money is devivded between Gold, Sliver and Penny coins, so would the spending power.


LW


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## Olly Buckle (Nov 19, 2016)

A pound was a pound weight of silver, a penny a pennyweight of silver, one two hundred and fortieth of a pound.

There has been considerable inflation in my lifetime, but when I was a boy there were still victoria and george the fifth coins in circulation made of sterling silver, five shillings in silver weighed an ounce, so four ounces weight for your pound in money, a quarter of a pound weight.

15th century wages increased sharply, there had been such a knock to the population from plague plus several bad harvests in a row, you get the peasant's revolt and a break down of the old feudal system, but as a general guide, a labourer might get a penny a day, whereas a skilled craftsman like a stone mason might get sixpence, there would be benifits on top of that, such as a gallon of beer a day


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## lwhitehead (Nov 23, 2016)

Well no effence to Olly which he has bin helpful but I trying to do Italian Money in the 15th Century, and due to Balkized Italy at the time. Noe so far I've discovered that the Gold Coins vary form city state to city state, they came in Florins, Ducats and Scudos, the Middle coin was the Soldo, The Penny was called the Denier which was same in England.

LW


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## CyberWar (Nov 24, 2016)

https://measuringworth.com/datasets/ukearncpi/result2.php

I believe this link answers to your question accurately, at least for 15th century England. Throughout the century, a common citizen's average yearly earnings were around 4 pounds stirling, which equates roughly to 2500 pounds stirling in the present day.

For comparison, a Milanese suit of plate armor, which was considered the best at the time, cost 8 pounds and 6 schillings in 1441, or around 7000 pounds in modern currency. While it might not sound like an exorbitant price even by modern standards (the modern price of an authentic custom-forged plate armor suit being roughly the same), considering that it is the equivalent of more than two years income of the average citizen gives a good idea of the purchasing power of 15th century currency. A thoroughbred war horse at the time would cost around 10 pounds, likewise far beyond the means of the average citizen much like a Ferrari or Lamborghini supercar would be today, though the prices of horses would fluctuate greatly throughout the years, increasing greatly in times of war and epizootics.


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## lwhitehead (Nov 26, 2016)

Well the reason I'm using Italian forms of Money is that I'm creating a Hard Fantasy setting based on 15th to 16th Century timeframe, the Florian was adopted by nations outside of Italy,

In Fantasy we have Gold, Sliver and Copper Coins,

LW


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## Ptolemy (Nov 26, 2016)

lwhitehead said:


> Well the reason I'm using Italian forms of Money is that I'm creating a Hard Fantasy setting based on 15th to 16th Century timeframe, the Florian was adopted by nations outside of Italy,
> 
> In Fantasy we have Gold, Sliver and Copper Coins,
> 
> LW



Since it is a fantasy couldn't you come up with some arbitrary weight in the general vicinity of the weight of the coin. Then you could use the modern gold standard to find the amount in modern times, then use that to convert to your fantasy coinage? 

Just a thought.


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