... with £291 being spent in the next four years. Can you provide a modern equivalent for this sum?
I'm usually cautious about giving modern equivalencies for medieval sums, particularly large ones, because of the differences between prices for consumer goods (e.g. the price of a loaf of bread), average wages (e.g. how much was the typical labourer paid) and the price for large projects (e.g. building a castle). None the sources I'm using were willing to venture a modern price equivalent for just this reason. I think we've got the same issue on the
Caernarfon Castle article - I'd be happy to go with whatever the consensus is!
(An example of the problem... £20 in 1264 could translate as £10,500 in 2009 money using the retail price index equivalent, or £237,000 using average earnings! And that's before you consider how many people had £20 available - it would be a bigger capital sum today than even £237,000 would imply)
Hchc2009 (
talk)
10:03, 26 September 2010 (UTC)reply
By 1233 the castle could produce 120,000 quarrels in 120 days, would this be better phrased as 1,000 quarrels per day?
I know what you mean. The problem I've got is that the original source gives the figures as for a production period of 120 days (although Malemort gets his own daily tally). Now, I suspect that they wouldn't have worked every one of those days (e.g. they'd have had Sundays off!) and so the actual output per day would therefore have had to have been over 1,000 - 1,166 or so if they did a 6 day week. But there is a bit of supposition here! What do you reckon? We could go for "an average of 1,000 quarrels a day" perhaps?
Hchc2009 (
talk)
10:03, 26 September 2010 (UTC)reply
Indeed, in fact thinking about it when saint's days are factored in the daily production might have been higher. Perhaps a slight rephrase such as: "A production level of 120,000 quarrels in a 120 day period (or even "four month period") was achieved in 1273."
... with £291 being spent in the next four years. Can you provide a modern equivalent for this sum?
I'm usually cautious about giving modern equivalencies for medieval sums, particularly large ones, because of the differences between prices for consumer goods (e.g. the price of a loaf of bread), average wages (e.g. how much was the typical labourer paid) and the price for large projects (e.g. building a castle). None the sources I'm using were willing to venture a modern price equivalent for just this reason. I think we've got the same issue on the
Caernarfon Castle article - I'd be happy to go with whatever the consensus is!
(An example of the problem... £20 in 1264 could translate as £10,500 in 2009 money using the retail price index equivalent, or £237,000 using average earnings! And that's before you consider how many people had £20 available - it would be a bigger capital sum today than even £237,000 would imply)
Hchc2009 (
talk)
10:03, 26 September 2010 (UTC)reply
By 1233 the castle could produce 120,000 quarrels in 120 days, would this be better phrased as 1,000 quarrels per day?
I know what you mean. The problem I've got is that the original source gives the figures as for a production period of 120 days (although Malemort gets his own daily tally). Now, I suspect that they wouldn't have worked every one of those days (e.g. they'd have had Sundays off!) and so the actual output per day would therefore have had to have been over 1,000 - 1,166 or so if they did a 6 day week. But there is a bit of supposition here! What do you reckon? We could go for "an average of 1,000 quarrels a day" perhaps?
Hchc2009 (
talk)
10:03, 26 September 2010 (UTC)reply
Indeed, in fact thinking about it when saint's days are factored in the daily production might have been higher. Perhaps a slight rephrase such as: "A production level of 120,000 quarrels in a 120 day period (or even "four month period") was achieved in 1273."