2000sp for an Arming Sword

I've been doing some research on wages and cost in the Middles Ages. First, I want to say that nobody knows what the wages were in the Middle Ages (there are some lists). Further the Middle Ages comprise roughly 1000 years (depends on who is counting). During that time wages changed to reflect monetary policy, inflation, a county's wealth, and a myriad of other issues. The area of those places considered part of the Middle Ages in Europe is quite vast, stretching from Moscow in the East and Iceland in the West. What I am trying to say is pinning down a wage is difficult. So, I decided on about 1200 England, rounded some numbers out, and came up with a number. Its a number that may not be grounded in any reality.  

A free farmer would produce 50 silver a day in goods or services. That is the number I decided on. There are variety of factors that led me to that conclusion not the least of which was some averages and rounding and lack of knowledge about such a poorly documented phenomena. Record keeping was fairly good during that time but it is incomplete and difficult to pin down especially for farmers. So, I decided on 50 silver a day. A silver would be equal to a shilling, pfennig, or denaro, more or less. Now it is important to note that most of the value created was consumed by the farmer (milk, vegetables, etc.)

Now I made another assumption. The silver to gold ratio is 100:1. I base that on today's price of silver and gold. I am not sure what the conversion in the Middle Ages might have been. However, a silver to gold ratio seems to hold over time and across cultures. I may be wrong. But, to make thing easy for creating prices for weapons and stuff I had to make a decision. That is my decision. It is for a fantasy roleplaying game so does not have to bear much resemblance to reality. That said, the closer to reality we can get, the more real the setting will feel and the more immersive the experience. So anyway, one gold piece is worth 100 silver pieces.

How much did a peasant make? I have no idea. It changed and depended on where one was located. Also, acquiring actual silver pieces could be difficult for a farmer because bartering made up such a huge part of the economy, especially for farmers. Merchants and nobility could use coin to pay, but also used the bartering service. Trade of goods and service was the most common form of exchange for the vast majority of people the vast majority of time. Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, a valuable spice at the time. Bartering even made a huge comeback in America in the 1930s. Coin was not common, but it was still valuable. 

 

Assumptions and more assumptions. How much did a sword cost? I basically compared the cost of a average firearm today and converted it to the cost of an average sword. There are two assumption or beginning points in this comparison. First, I am talking about a real useful gun for combat and not some off-the-shelf common or hunting gun available everywhere. I chose a specific gun that sorta represent, not the creme de la creme, but one of very high quality and, well, status (at least among gun owners). I then chose the same amongst swords. I chose the arming sword. I know that things varied by class, local, culture, etc, but that seemed a really good starting point. Hence, I am planning on converting cost to silver rather than using gold. 

The first thing i did was average out the cost of good gun at 2000usd. I don't know if that is right and it really doesn't matter as long as its in the ballpark. I then converted that value to time. How long would it take for someone who is at the bottom of the economic latter to save up enough money to buy a 2000.00 gun (I say bottom because farmers were at the bottom in medieval society, more or less toward the lower rung). Again this is all dependent and full of assumptions. The average income for those at the lower end of the economic strata is, for purpose of this discussion, is 20,000usd a year (I think its actually 15,000 but I don't know and I needed an easy figure to work with.). Further, I am assuming 95% of that goes into bills,food, lodging, and other expenses. By that estimate it takes two year to save up the money, if one were intent on buying that gun, instead of say, a car or cell phone, etc. 

So I then I assume the lower economic strata (a free farmer I should say) in the middle ages to have the same options. So basically I have to work backwards to get an accurate price of an arming sword. It should take a farmer two years to buy an arming sword again, assuming they are buying nothing else of utilitarian value with 5% being saved. An average free farmer would have to make 20,000sp or roughly 50sp a day in goods, services, etc. 

So, an arming sword is 2000sp or 2 gold pieces. Now I have some numbers to work with and some weapons values to create. Its sorta neat to see how much stuff cost.