Fantasy Price List
I'm basing the following off of sources I've gathered here (see Real History -> Prices), here, and here, and will net a few more as time goes by). The basic assumption is that character's will be purchasing things with silver coins that have 1% of a pound's worth of fine (.999 purity) silver.
By this unit one pound Tower Weight is equal to ~71.428571428571428571428571428571 coins. For... simplicity's sake, this gets rounded to 72. This still makes the silver coin a pretty large unit, but a bit more tolerable.
- 1 Pound = 72 coins
- 1 Crown = 18 coins
- 1 Shilling = 3.6 coins
- 1 Pence = .3 coins
- 1 Farthing = .075 coins
- 1 Mark = 48 coins
Obviously, numbers are going to be rounded and adjusted slightly, especially as prices vary over time. Even then, this is a rough list, and as the first source link mentions, most such economies are barter economies - even with the powerful influence of the Guild or similarly spanning organization.
- Gold is assumed to be 12 times the value of silver in my Exalted games, 10 times in D&D.
- Dinars are halved and quartered in Exalted (silver bits). This is still a fair amount of coin.
- In D&D, silver coins still have their tenth-value copper counterparts, which gets close enough to the farthing to be useful.
- Prices will be adjusted to roughly 1450 terms. The reference refers to the price, or prices, in pence from the source material, followed by date.
- Since this is based off of a set of English (and some French) price lists, this is mostly going to reflect an English economy. GMs who want to make a more realistic setting will keep in mind what England grew and had to import, as well as the fact that the Welsh longbow was made of a rare natural composite not found elsewhere, meaning its price is easy to inflate in wet, humid climates where glued compounds like the Mongol bow are going to come apart eventually.
Tools
| Item | Reference | Price | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anvil | 240 (1514) | 75 coins | |
| Armorer's Tools 1 | 3,323 (1514) | 1,000 coins | |
| Auger | 3 (1457) | 1 coin | |
| Ax | 5 (1457) | 1.5 coins | |
| Barrel | 3 (1200?) | 2 coins | |
| Bellows | 360 (1514) | 100 coins | |
| Bucket | 4 (1200?) | 2.5 coins | |
| Cart | 24 (1200?) | 15 coins | |
| Cart (reinforced) | 48 (1200?) | 30 coins | |
| Chest (clothing) | 24 (1200?) | 20 coins | |
| Chisel | 4 (1514) | 1.5 coins | |
| Dray 2 | 120 (1200?) | 75 coins | |
| Hammer | 8 (1514) | 2.5 coins | |
| Hammer (good) | 32 (1514) | 10 coins | |
| Mason's Tools 3 | 9 (1350) | 18 coins | |
| Pot (Brass) | 12 (1200?) | 4 coins | |
| Shovel | 1.5 (1457) | half coin | |
| Spade | 1.5 (1457) | half coin | |
| Plow Foot Iron | 5 (1350) | 2 coins | |
| Spinning Wheel | 10 (1457) | 3 coins | |
| Vise | 160 (1514) | 50 coins | |
| Yoke | 24 (1350) | 12 coins |
- 1: This is a complete set, including tools for plate. At the price of such things, you do the best job you can, and these would be of fine quality. Simpler, less capable tools would cost a tenth or less do work only with lamellar or mail.
- 2: A dray is basically a heavy, sideless cart used to haul things with.
- 3: The source price only lists three unnamed tools, so I work off quadrupling the price, as the entire set of tools was supposed to be a fairly significant cost.
Animals
Draft Horse, Cow, Wether (castrated ram), Ox, Sheep, Chicken, Goose, Pig Goose, Ox, Pig, Sheep, Wether
| Item | Reference | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Cow | 43.5 (1350) | 70 coins |
| Cow (good) | 57.75 (1310) | 200 coins |
| Chicken | .2 (1350) | quarter coin |
| Draft Horse | 46.2 (1250) | 200 coins |
| Draft Horse (good) | 92.4 (1250) | 400 coins |
| Duck | .5 (1322) | 1 coin |
| Falcon | 92.4 (1350) | 150 coins |
| Goose | 2.3-3.1 (1375) | 4.5 coins |
| Ox | 60.5 (1350) | 95 coins |
| Pig | 13.75 (1338) | 22 coins |
| Pigeon | .1 (1322) | quarter coin |
| Riding Horse (High Grade) | 924 (1250) | 4,000 coins |
| Sheep | 6.5 (1350) | 10.5 coins |
| Warhorse | 370 (1250) | 1,600 coins |
| Warhorse (High Grade) 1 | 7,392 (1250) | 30,000 coins |
| Wether 2 | 3.75 (1338) | 7 coins |
- 1: Horse prices in general varied wildly. This is a pretty extreme case, but it would still be a pretty fine beast even outside a fantasy setting.
- 2: A Wether is a castrated ram.
Books
Books in the Middle Ages were typically measured by pecia, or quire. Though specific sizes varied, this often referred to four leaves (eight pages) for larger pages (two columns per page) and twice as many leaves (sixteen pages) for one-column pages, holding over 30,000 characters and some 7,500 words. Near as my own research can tell, the Bible was frequently copied with about 150 pecia. Of course, pagecount varied wildly, but it was always a monstrous book. The Codex Gigas contains the Latin Bible, and several other works, and was made from the skin of 160 donkeys, making 320 leaves of vellum.
In England, the value of a Bible in 1310 was said to be eight thousand pence. This suggests a price of over 50 pence per quire, fully illuminated and bound. Other books of unnamed length went for nearly a pound each, though this is a bit harder to determine, since illumination can be quite expensive. Writing material came in one of a few varieties:
- Papyrus - the first 'paper', the plant only grows in subtropical climes, though other reed-like plants can be used depending on the campaign and specific environment. It does best in low moisture environments, and is extremely brittle, and cannot be folded, preventing most means of making books.
- Parchment - sheepskin, goatskin, or calfskin - usually referred to the former two. Made by drying out, stretching, cleaning and scraping the skin. It is quite vulnerable to humidity and heat, with permanent damage beginning at around 70 degrees Celsius. Humidity causes warps in the material, which set if dried.
- Vellum - typically calfskin, but often meant a high-quality form of parchment, so other sheepskins or goatskins might be so lucky. Merely considered a better writing surface, it has all the flaws of parchment.
- Paper - the original wood-based paper invented in China was prone to destroying itself over time via high acid content, while Europeans tended to use linen or hemp. Modern processes use methods to create acid-free paper from wood pulp. While somewhat more resistant to humidity and heat, it is easier to tear than parchment or vellum.
At the time point used, paper comes significantly down in price, and roughly matches vellum. Even still, this implies the price of a dead, properly slain animal of not insignificant size for each and every quire of parchment, to say nothing of more expensive sheets of paper and vellum. For Legend of the Five Rings, remember that parchment means -dead animal- and samurai ought not to have anything to do with it.
Sheep and goatskin went for minimum of 4 pence in 1322. Treatment is fairly simple, taking a couple of days and is not quite so labor intensive as weaving masses of crushed papyrus or other reed, which makes the cost of papyrus somewhat competitive, especially as the value of labor increases. Paper was beginning to get made in quantity by the mid 15th century.
