Money goes as follows: 1 pound (L) = 20 shillings (s) 1 crown = 5 shillings 1 shilling = 12 pence (d) 1 penny = 4 farthings 1 mark = 13s 4dThe French Livre, sou, and denier are equivalent to the pound, shilling and penny (Latin liber, solidus, and denarius, I believe, which is where the weird English abbreviations come from).
Note: mail is chainmail; almost all the rest is plate-armor. The armor of the knight in 1374 was probably mail with some plates; same for Gloucester's. Mail was extremely susceptible to rust, and was cleaned by rolling it in sand and vinegar in a barrel. Pauldrons are shoulder plates; morions are open helms, burgonets and bascinets closed helms; and a target refers to any of a number different kind of shields. Armor of proof is tested during the making with blows or shots from the strongest weapons of the time; if a weapon is listed, the armor does not claim to be proof against everything, only that it is proof up to that weapon's strength (eg pistol proof is not musket proof, but may be sword proof). All plate armor was lined with cloth, to pad the wearer, quiet the armor, and reduce wear between the pieces. This, along with the necessary straps, was a significant amount of the expense. An armorer asking for money to set up shop in 1624 estimated production costs and profit for a number of different types of armor: I give two examples below ([5], pp. 189-190).
Note: Horse prices varied dramatically; for instance, they doubled between 1210 and 1310. ([3], p. 37).
Related note: around 1380, these are the average costs per day of feeding people on an estate ([3], p. 65): lord, 7d; esquire, 4d; yeoman, 3d; and groom, 1d.
* Source says 2s/day. This is not only insanely high, but the text also claims that the board was the same as at Oxford--i.e., 2s/week or 104s/year. ** A pecia is 16 columns of 62 lines of 32 letters, i.e., 31 744 letters, or about 7 500 - 8 000 words. Rental period is not specified, but I would guess a year; books were rented to be copied, and copying the Bible took 15 months. See [9], p. 172.
note: tithes were often calculated at 1d a week for every 20s of annual rent paid (4, p. 208). The following are the estimates of raw materials and labor that went into the tower of Langeais, a rectangular, tapering stone tower built in 992- 994. The source is [6], pp. 47ff. The dimensions at the base were 17.5 meters by 10 meters; the height was 16m (3 floors); the walls were 1.5m thick, made of two shells filled with loose rock.
Note: loose tunics take 2.25-2.5 yards. In the late 14th century, shorter doubled (lined) tunics, known as doublets, became fashionable, requiring 4 yards ([3], pp 175,176).
Note: Sorry, folks, that's all I found. It was mandatory in England for all freemen to own certain types of weapons and armor. (In 1181 every freeman having goods worth 10 marks (1 mark = 13s 4d) had to have a mail shirt, a helmet, and a spear. All other freemen should have helmet, spear, and gambeson (quilted armor) [4], p. 39.) Later, the government stored arms and armour in churches for use; in the 13th century anyone with an income of L2-L5 (wealthy peasants) had to have bows; archery practice became compulsory on Sundays and holidays. You may know that the extreme range of the longbow was 400 yards, but did you know that a statute of Henry VIII no one over 24 could practice at a range of less than 220 yards? (See [4], p. 95 and elsewhere). Note: for guessing prices, see the section on tools (an axe for 5d). An armorer might make 24s a month; say a week to make a decent sword, and you might get a price that way. See the section on books and education for fencing instruction.
Note: these costs will be wildly varying depending on circumstance.
Note: Christopher Dyer gives as a rough rule of thumb 1 year's income for
a funeral ([3], p. 85)
Note: [1], pp 126-129, gives the following prices at an inn in 1331. For
one day, 3 men with 4 servants spent: Bread, 4d; beer, 2d; wine 1.25d;
meat, 5.5d; potage, .25d; candles, .25d; fuel, 2d; beds, 2d; fodder for
horses, 10d. The four servants staying alone sleep 2 nights for 1d.
Generally, all 7 spend 2d a night on beds; in London, it is 1d per head.
Note: most of these come from inventories of peasants' belongings. The
fine goods would be more expensive.
Note about lighting: great houses could use 100 lb of wax and tallow in a
single winter night ([3], p. 74). Others, not as rich, would go to sleep
earlier.
Note: sheriffs of London paid 300L per year, hoping to make a profit from
the fines they collected.
Note: 30 adult sheep could produce about 20s of wool per year in 1299
([3], p. 114).
Note: To get a VERY ROUGH sense of money, I reproduce the following chart
from Dyer ([3], p. 206). These are averages of daily wages in pence.
注：茅屋匠的日薪是5-6便士，约合明朝的3钱白银=300文铜钱，同伴的工钱略低，大约是200文。
苑署杂记：油漆匠三十八工，银二两二钱八分，每天工资60文钱。
The mints were small buildings and the workers used the following tools; a furnace, a scale, a scorp, a punch and a pair of tongs that were used for placing the disc on the anvil where the front side mould had been placed. On other side of the coin a pinch on which the scene had been engraved, was placed. The first side was hit by the worker with a hammer so the coin was pressed from both sides thus the carving was achieved.
In the first years, there were no discs but round metal masses until the round bars were invented.
Metals abundance was necessary for the production of coins. A small city could just trade its products in order to buy the precious metals. On the other side, the large cities like Athens needed much more metal quantities which they used to take from the mines. For example, Athens pumped it from Lavrio mine, Aegina from Sifnos mine, King Philip II from Damasteio and Paeonia while Alexander the Great took advantage of the mines located in the areas he had conquered. The Ptolemies were provided with metals from the mines of Nouvia and from Cyprus.
These are several examples of Greek coins. Many city states in Ancient Greece had their own engravings on their coins. Greek coins were made mostly of gold, silver, and bronze. Metal for the coins came from mines outside of Athens.
评：古希腊的货币材料只有金银，质地柔软，可以用钢模或青铜模具压制，而古支那的铜钱是青铜制成，质地坚硬，如果使用锻造法比较困难，而且钢模不容易制造。 钢模锻造货币效率比沙模铸造高得多，可以大批量生产，而且图案精美。 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
