How much did a good sword cost in Medieval Western Europe?
Upvote:-2
Using the above comment's source, and assuming a thatcher circa 1340 would earn 3 pence daily for 365 days a year, I believe that calculates to approx. 71 British pounds or 103 USD today. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Upvote:5
A sword might be the most expensive item that a man owned. The one sword whose value is given in the sagas (given by King Hákon to Höskuldur in chapter 13 of Laxdæla saga) was said to be worth a half mark of gold. In saga-age Iceland, that represented the value of sixteen milk-cows, a very substantial sum so these days it would be like the price of a new car or your years wage.
That was the price of a good sword, for the Norse.
Source
Upvote:6
Lifting from this site, I found a "cheap sword (peasant's)", England ~1340, listed at 6 pence. The same site lists the daily wage of a thatcher (in the same time period) as 3 pence.
The source is given as "Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages, Christopher Dyer, Cambridge University Press, 1989". Probably a good source to look into.
This does not exactly match your requirements, but is the best I could find, ad hoc, and at least is in the same ballpark. A high-quality sword, as you describe, would probably cost a multiple of the quoted value (quality work tended to be much more expensive).
More post
- 📝 What are the modern roles of brigadier generals and commodores?
- 📝 How long did it take for a letter to arrive in England in the 1830s?
- 📝 How educated were the clergy during the Medieval period?
- 📝 Why was John Paul Jones pardoned in Whitehaven in 1999?
- 📝 Can anybody identify this uniform?
- 📝 What was the British version of the Enigma machine?
- 📝 Has there ever been a civilization that had no human enemies?
- 📝 What did Hitler say in Mein Kampf about the possibility of other nations allying against Germany in response to her aggression?
- 📝 Where did primitive settlements first start to occur outside of the Middle-East and Turkey?
- 📝 What were the largest companies in the world before and after the Great Depression?
- 📝 Did Japan use reconnaissance balloons in WWII?
- 📝 Why didn't Pakistan try to wrest Kashmir from India in 1962 but tried to do so in 1965?
- 📝 Was there religious content on the post-war BBC World Service?
- 📝 Is Josephus' account for the length of the Jewish War generally accepted as correct?
- 📝 Why was the Kamchatka Regiment sent?
- 📝 Based on his service record, where was this soldier deployed in WW2?
- 📝 What decides who goes in the front rank in a line infantry formation?
- 📝 Why did Germany not colonise much?
- 📝 What was the world's largest religion in 1500?
- 📝 What factors discouraged the Nazis from focusing all their forces on the Caucasus region during Operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 Did Egyptian civilization start from North to South or vice versa?
- 📝 What was the reason for the Ottoman invasion of Otranto?
- 📝 What involvement did Jonathan Edwards have with the Conspiracy of 1741?
- 📝 What is known of the religion/mythology/legends of the Polynesians who migrated into Oceania?
- 📝 Were there communes in Imperial Germany?
- 📝 What are the Josephus Greek Epistles?
- 📝 In 1914 why didn't Germany simply mobilize its army without declaring war?
- 📝 Who invented psychological pricing?
- 📝 How did the Faroese heat their houses?
- 📝 Why did Archelaus move the capitol of Macedon to Pella?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How much did a good sword cost in Medieval Western Europe?
- 📝 How much did a sword cost in AD 1000 Constantinople?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 How much did a transatlantic telegram cost in 1914?
- 📝 How frequently did monasteries attack other monasteries in Early Medieval Western Europe?
- 📝 How much did it cost to buy a ticket on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul in 1914?
- 📝 How did commoners in late medieval to early modern Europe learn to read?
- 📝 How much did a ship cost in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How much did a telephone call cost in the USA around 1920?
- 📝 How much did the western world know about the Soviet Union pre-WWII?
- 📝 How much did helping the American Revolution cost France?
- 📝 How much did it cost to maintain Gustavus Adolphus' army? How much of it was paid by Richelieu?
- 📝 How did a student grant work in 18th/19th century Western Europe
- 📝 How much did gunpowder cost per barrel in 1605 in London?
- 📝 How much did the Chinese Summer Palace cost to build?
- 📝 How much did food cost in Babylon?
- 📝 How much did cannon cost in 1410?
- 📝 How much did revolvers cost in Victorian England?
- 📝 How much did medieval horse armor cost?
- 📝 How Much Did World War Two Cost Financially?
- 📝 How did the maximum strengths of alcoholic beverages in Western Europe increase from wine which Romans watered to 80 proof to absinthe?
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 How did Medieval armies survive the use of mail armor in the deserts of the Middle East?
- 📝 How did cities operate in medieval times?
- 📝 How much would 300 pounds (money value) weigh in Medieval England?
- 📝 How did medieval manors handle population growth? Was there room for more fields to be ploughed?
- 📝 How much did J. Robert Oppenheimer get paid while overseeing the Manhattan Project?
- 📝 How did Islam and Hinduism thrive together in Medieval India?
- 📝 How much tax did Romans pay?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?