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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 3635847, member: 93416&quot;](see above for live link)</p><p><br /></p><p>Many thanks for this - had not seen it before.&nbsp; At 22.2 grains the figure for the 1279 penny follows the known texts and assumes 243 pennies struck to the pound (rounded off to one decimal place).</p><p><br /></p><p>If we turn to the actual coins, Allen cites Archibald noting that the London mint was managing to keep the discrepancy lower&nbsp; (241.6 per pound).&nbsp; But only at that mint.&nbsp; Why would that be?&nbsp; A guess would be that it depends on who the mint got its silver from.&nbsp; Perhaps London was getting ingots newly imported, and was giving a good deal to encourage foreign merchants?&nbsp; Meanwhile, provincial mints might be taking old worn coin collected in tax, and a bit more wriggle room was needed?&nbsp; Maybe London was just more efficient?&nbsp; Just guessing – anyone got different ideas?</p><p><br /></p><p>Kelleher and Cook play it amusingly safe in giving such a random list of prices!&nbsp; Surely the main question to ask, is - what the did the average guy get paid per day?&nbsp; Its interesting to track this matter over time.&nbsp; (Caution: I take the below mostly from memory)</p><p><br /></p><p>Back around 1820 the idea emerged that the medieval peasant was much better off than his Tudor or contemporary equivalent.&nbsp; Cobbett’s argument for this was mostly from the size of churches – by 1820 the typical village church was way too big for the local population.</p><p><br /></p><p>By 1887 that side of the argument was digging into documents with the work of Thorold Rogers.&nbsp; That suggested around 1300 a guy would get 4d per day, and would be doing really well with his shopping compared with later times.&nbsp; That sort of idea held the high ground till quite recently, but people have been digging further into the facts and now suggest</p><p><br /></p><p>1)&nbsp; Rogers tended to use wages taken from prestige contracts, for kings and bishops etc – since they dominate the documents we have.&nbsp; But they probably were not representative, and also were likely payments to gang masters – so - like modern payments to employment agencies – were not what the guy himself actually got.</p><p><br /></p><p>2)&nbsp; The statute of labour I think also caps wages at 4d in the late 14th century.&nbsp; Rogers rolled that out over the year.&nbsp; But it seems those negotiations were with the limited pool of free labour and concerning just the harvest period.&nbsp; And that was only about 40 days per year.&nbsp; So again, we are left guessing about the reality of year round household incomes………………</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob T[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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