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In fourteenth cemtury England the basic monetary unit was the silver penny, d from the Latin denarius. The Shilling, s, was worth 12d, and the pound sterling, £, worth 20s or 240d. There were 240 pence to a pound because originally 240 silver penny coins weighed 1 libra (livre or pound, 1lb). A sum of £3 12s 6d was normally written as £3-12-6, but a sum of 12s 6d was normally recorded as 12/6.
The florin ducat, franc, livre, écu, mark and English pound were all in theory the same. The closest to a standard was the Florin, minted in Florence which weighed 3.5 grams of gold and in 1338 was worth 36d (2000, Xiii, A Note on Money, Clifford J. Rogers), and also the ducat from Venice.
When the word gold was used it tended to refer to actual coinage such as franc d'or, écu d'or, or mouton d'or, rather than credit
France used the livres, l, worth 20 sous, each sous was worth 12 deniers. The exchange rate from livres tournais, l.t. to the pound sterling varied throughout the 14th Century was worth 5-6 l.t. per pid sterling (2000, Xiii, A Note on Money, Clifford J. Rogers).
The French gold crown, franc, florin livre tournois (or mouton d'or) all had a nominal value of 3s 4d or £0.166666
The Ecu was a French coin worth 40d. sterling in 1360 (2000, Xiii, A Note on Money, Clifford J. Rogers)
The mouton d'or was so called because it had an impression of the Agnus Dei on one side. It was a gold coin worth about 1/3re of a pond of silver.
A Noble worth 2 crowns was struck by Edward III to commerate the battle of Sluys
The mark was worth 4 crowns or 13 shillings 4d
A pound sterling was worth 6 crowns
In Castille the currency used was the gould double
The wages during Edward III's reign were quite generous: an Earl would receive 6s 8d, a Banneret 4s, knights 2s, men at arms 1s and mounted archers 6d per day. These rates of pay remained static throughout most of the period.
Banneret 20 Sous/day
Bachelor Knight 10 Sous/day
mounted Squire 6-7 Sous/day
each horse archer received 6 deniers
each squire 12 deniers or 1 sol, each knight 2 sols
each knight banneret 4 sols.
20 sols went to pound, and although the exact value of money in those days relative to that which it bears at the present time is doubtful, it may be placed at twelve times the present value. Therefore each horse archer received an equivalent to 6s. a day, each squire 12s., each knight 24s., and each knight banneret 48s. per day.
1351 April The Royal Ordinance, France, raises rates of pay, and removed the baronial right to withdraw from battle at will, pay:
banneret 40 Sous (2 livre)/day
Knight 20 Sous/day
Squire 10 Sous/day
Valet 5 Sous/day
Foot Soldier 3 Sous/day
In July 1355 the rate's of Pay for the English expedition to Gascony were as follows:
Earl 6s 8d per day
Banneret 4s per day
Knight 2s per day
Esquire 1s per day
Man at Arms 1s per day
Mounted Archer 6d per day
Foot Archer 3d per day
Pikeman 2d per day
In 1358 for the outfitting of the army the costs were as follows
Bows 16d-18d
Sheaf of 24 arrow shaft with feathered heads 13d
Steel arrow Heads 3d
Bowstrings 3s a gross
In 1372 the rate of Pay in Italy for a Lance was 20 florins per month.
1306 Masons working on Exeter Cathedral are paid 5 1/4d in summer but 4 1/2d in winter due to shorter daylight hours (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1330's the daily wage for a farm laborer was under 2d. War Cruel and Sharp, 2000, Xiii, A Note on Money, Clifford J. Rogers
1334-1335 Prince Edward made Nicholas Upton, the parker of Shotwick Park, Cheshire, a job of dignity with valuable perquisites, and it was eagerly sought after and paid 2d a day.
1339 Carpenters in Exeter were paid 2 3/4d per person per day, plus ale (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1340's Tilers in London are paid 5 1/2d in summer but 4 1/2d in winter due to shorter daylight hours (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1393 The average wage of a London labourer was 6d
| Worker | 1301-10 | 1331-40 | 1361-70 | 1391-1400 |
| Carpenter | 2 3/4d | 3d | 4 1/2d | 4 1/2d |
| Labourer | 1 1/2d | 1 3/4d | 3 1/4d | 3 1/4d |
| Thatcher | 2 1/2d | 3d | 3 1/2d | 4 1/4d |
| Thather's mate | 1d | 1 1/4d | 2d | 2 1/4d |
| Mason | 5d | 5 1/2d | 6d | 6d |
(The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
Labourers spent two thirds of their income on food and drink. Sundays were a rest dayand with 40-50 holy days holiday, the average mason would have earned in a year £7 1s 6d.
Employment in towns often required membership of merchant guild, or a craft spoecific guild such as carpenter. Entry to the guild cost a fee of £2-£3, a london livery company cost around £3. To become apprenticed to a master cost another similar fee. (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
What is Fourteenth Century money worth in today's terms? This varies as inflation devalues money each day, some estimates are given below:
In 1934 it was estimated that the value was calculated by multiplying the value by 40
In 1976 it was estimated that the value was calculated by multiplying the value by 300
Prices rose dramatically over the Century due to poor crop harvests, war and the black death which reduced cost of goods but increased labour costs. In 1315 English wheat prices
climb to 3 shillings 3 pence per bushel as a short crop caused by heavy rains that year combined with export
demand inflated price levels.
Devaluation: One chronicler wrote "In the year 1343 Philip of Valois made 15 deniers worth 3"
In 1348, Ralph, Earl of Stafford, and John Giffard were paying their farm labourers one pence a day. By 1350 they were forced to increase it to two pence a day. Other local landowners were paying three pence a day. John Giffard warned the Earl of Stafford that there was a danger that the serfs would leave Yalding in an effort to obtain higher wages.
In 1350 The Black Death reduces population pressure on food supplies, which had been growing in England and Europe in the 14th century, and prices dropped for lack of demand. Where a good horse cost 40 shillings in England in 1348 it sold for only 16 in 1350, A fat ox 4 shillings, a cow 1 shilling, and fat sheep sixpence, but wheat fetched 1 shilling per quarter (8 bushels), up from as little as 16 pence in good crop years, as the dearth of field hands reduces the crop and forces many landlords to turn farmland into pasturage.
In 1350 salt production took a sharp drop in northern Europe as a result of economic conditions and of the Hundred Years’ War. Poor-quality salt from Brittany’s Bourgneuf Bay began to dominate the salt fish trade as good white salt becam too costly. Salt deposits opened in Poland, with a Genoese firm headquartered at Cracow receiving a monopoly in Polish salt production.
In 1351 French currency suffered 18 alterations, and 70 over the next decade due to devaluation of the currency.
Money has always caused problems and no more so than in the Fourteenth Century when Monarchs either taxed and/or borrowed heavily to finance their wars, expeditions, bulding programs and lifestyles. Christians were not meant to lend money, Jews were damned anyway so were permitted to lend at interest rates of 20% or more and throughout the Middle Ages funded many monarchs.
In 1188 to raise money for crusading king Richard I created the Saladin tithe, which was the first time in England that tax was levied on personal property other than real estate, Richard and John, pg 105.
In 1337 Prince Edward was made the Duke of Cornwall, The Dukedoms lands in Cornwall were made up of 17 manors and the boroughs of Camelford, Grampound, Helston, Launceston, Liskeard, Lostwithiel, Tintagel, Trematon and Saltash. Other benefits granted to the Dukedom include the profits from the county courts, control of wrecks and the right to collect a duty of £2 on each 1,000lbs. of tin.
1340 The Florentine bankers of Edward III take the Archbishop of Canterbury as collateral on loans. The Peruzzi household charge interest of 120% and an additional 60% if payment is late. In 1343 Peruzzi bank becomes bancrupt due to loans to Edward III. In 1344 Bardi bank fails which brings down Acciaiuoli bank.
In France during December 1355 the 3 Estates are summoned by King Jean and agree to pay for 30,000 Men-at-arms, for an estimated cost of 5,000,000 livres, on the condistion that the Estates would manage the funds. Money was raised by a tax on all estates and a salt tax. The required taxes were not raised so in 1356 they were increased to around 4% tax on icome of the rich, 5% from the middle class and 10% from the lowest taxable class. The taxes triggered a revolt of 'the little against the great' in the textile city of Arras in northern Picardy.
The English expeditions to Navarre of 1367 turned out to be an expensive fiasco. Prince Edward, who had helped underwrite the expedition, was forced eventually to absorb much of its cost. When he tried to recoup by imposing an unpopular hearth tax throughout the English lands on the continent, the Gascon's rebelled.
On January 27 1377 Parliament Convened and granted Edward III a Poll Tax at the rate of four pence (a groat) per head to all over the age of 14, this led widespread rioting in 1381 of the Peasants Revolt.
In July 1379 there was a rebellion in Anjou following a hearth tax of 12 francs per hearth.
In January 1379 a graduated Poll Tax was introduced for war with France but brought in £20,000 instead of the planned £50,000
Richard II pawned the Crown Jewels for £10,000 to fund an expedition led by Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham who landed in Calais on July 19 1380 with 5,060 men.
In January 1383 France Sales Tax was levied at 12p in the livre
1305 gallon of wine 3d (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1305 gallon of second best ale 1d (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1339 100 nails for constructing tables at the fish market 3d (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1349 horse 6s 8d that was worth £2 before the plague (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1349 cow 12d and was worth eight times more before the plague (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1363 Cost of food
8d Capon Pastry
5d Hen pasty
7d Roast goose
1d Ten finches
1d Ten cooked eggs
3d Leg of pork
A list of goods written in 1376 including costs:
21 Oct. 1368
Thomas Blankowe and Alice Breton, who had been sued by Emma Saltere in a plea of debt of 52s, made four defaults, whereupon the plaintiff prayed that the foreign attachment made upon them might be valued and delivered to her under security according to the custom of the City. The goods were valued by oath of Simon Maching, John Gildeford and John Duston as follows:
a coat (tunica) of bluet (Footnote 8) furred, 8s;
an old materaz, 16d;
a coverlet with a tester of blue, 5s;
a pair of sheets, 2s;
a pair of old sheets, 6d;
2 tuaills (Footnote 9) and 2 naperouns (Footnote 10) , 12d;
a pair of hose and a pair of old shoes, 8d;
a faldyng (Footnote 11) , 12d;
an unlined (non dupplicata) cloak with two women's hoods, 2s;
a pelewe, 4d;
2 cichar' (Footnote 12) , 12d;
a bowl, a tankard and a lynset (Footnote 13) , 6d;
a banner of carde (Footnote 14) , 6d;
a male (Footnote 15) with divers small objects necessary for women's occupations valued together, 6d;
a chest, 2s;
a canvas, 8d;
a coverlet, 2s;
a tester, 4d;
1 quylte devel (Footnote 16) , 8d;
a forcer with 2 keverchefs and other pynchers (Footnote 17) and 3 cordouns (Footnote 18) for a woman's head together with other small instruments belonging to women and one pair of tablets, valued altogether at 2s;
a large old tablet (tabula), 6d;total 32s 6d.
The above goods were delivered to the plaintiff under pledge of John Squier and Walter atte Ravene to answer therefor if the debtors appeared to plead within a year and a day.
1391 Henry IV pays 10s for a pound of saffron (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
1391 Henry IV pays 4d for a chicken (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
In 1393 a German price table lists
a pound of nutmeg as being worth seven fat oxen. In Europe 1 pound of saffron
is generally equal in value to a plowhorse, 1 pound of ginger will buy a
sheep, and 2 pounds of mace will buy a cow.
Royal Mints were at Canterbury, Berwick-on-Tweed and the Tower of London and private mints operated by the abbot of Bury St Edmunds, the bishop of Durham and the archbishop of York. In the 1330's the abbot of Reading started another mint on behalf of the king. In 1351 Edward III opened an additional mint at Calais. The private mints used several monyers who marked their coins and the mints at York and Durham change their marks when a new archbishop or bishop is elected. (The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, 2008, Ian Mortimer)
In May 1343 an Act of Parliament was made to regulate English coinage:
ITEM, it is accorded to make money of good sterling in England of the weight and alloy of the ancient sterling, which shall be current in England between the great men and commons of the land, and the which shall not be carried out of the realm of England in any manner, nor for any cause whatsoever; and in case that the Flemings will make good money of silver groats or other, according in alloy with good sterling, that such money shall be current in England between merchant and merchant, and others who of their own accord will receive the same; so that no silver be carried out of the realm.
In 1351 the need groat was again issued, but this time at a weight of 72 grains, with the halfgroats, pence, halfpence and farthings weighing in pro rata. The Treaty of Bretigni was signed in 1360, and as a result of this the title to the Kingdom of France was returned to the French, but this treaty came to an end in 1369. As a result of these activities there were a number of separate coinages and four of these included the groats.
From 1351 to 1361 groats and half groats were being struck in York as well as at London, and the groats carried the French title. Normally there were nine arcs to the tressure instead of the four around the head of Edward I, and the points of the tressures are variously fleured or have trefoils upon them. The obverse legend usually reads:
EDWARD D.G. REX ANGL Z FRANC D HYB
(Edward, by the Grace Of God King of England and France, Lord of Ireland).
The reverse has the usual three dots in each of the four quarters, with an inner legend declaring where the coin was struck, for example:
CIVITAS LONDON (City of London).
The outer legend is always:
POSUI DEUM ADIUTOREM MEUM (or abbreviations thereof (I have made God My Helper)).
1. 1351-2 Cross 1
2. 1352-3 Cross 1 broken
3. 1354-5 Cross 2
4. 1356-61 Cross 3
5. 1361-9 Cross potent
6. 1334-51 Cross pattee
7. 1369-77 Plain cross
8. 1356 Crown
The series in the main are identified by the style of the letters as well as by the mint mark. At the London mint the six basic series are designated by the letters B through to G (there is no series A groat at present).
coins were also being struck at York where Archbishop Thoresby held the See, and had authority to coin small change, but not the groat. Both series D and series E groats were duly struck on the King's behalf with an inner legend of:
CIVITAS EBORACI (City of York)
however, all other identification points are the same as those relating to the groats of London.
In 1360 the Treaty of Bretigni was signed. Edward no longer had jurisdiction over France and his claim to France was dropped from the legend of the coinage until 1369. A mint was established at Calais with coins being struck in gold and silver. Groats of 1361 had the French title removed. The mint mark used in these is the cross potent.
The groats were minted without the French title, but used new letter punches.The X in REX on the obverse side is generally of the treaty type, but occasionally is in the form of the curule chair. The mint mark is also the cross potent.
Coins from the Calais mint have the reverse inner legend of:
VILLA CALESIE
At the resumption of hostilities with France the French title has been resumed on the obverse legend, the X in REX is in the form of St. Andrews cross, and the mint marks are either cross pattee, cross potent or the plain cross.
1. A unit of mass in England.
2. A unit of mass in Scotland.
3. A standard measure, based on mass, used for cotton in England.
4. A standard capacity measure for coal in England.
5. A unit of capacity in the Netherlands.
In England, before 13th – 19th centuries, an important unit of mass used for wool, = 350 pounds before approx. 1256 and 364 pounds thereafter.
The original magnitude of the sack may have been influenced by the monetary value of the wool. A law of the tenth century (III Edgar 8.2) states “And a wey of wool shall be sold for 120d. And no one shall sell it at a cheaper rate.”A wey of wool is half a sack, so a sack would have been sold for 240 pence, or exactly a pound.
Thirteenth-century documents define the sack as 28 stone each of 12½ pounds avoirdupois, or 350 pounds, but its value was already shifting.
Wholesale quantities of wool were weighed on the King's balance, and it was the custom to add extra wool until the balance tipped in the buyer's favor. Such a procedure is easily abused by a weighmaster who wishes to favor the buyer, since the scales can be as easily tipped by an extra ten pounds as an extra two. So London abolished this practice effective December 6, 1256. To compensate buyers for the change to exact weight, they were given a well-defined extra bit, called “tret” or “cloffe”, which was set at an extra four pounds for every hundred pounds purchased. A 350-pound purchase (the old sack) thus became 350 plus 14 (14 = 4 pounds × 350/100), or 364 pounds. That weight was coincidentally almost the same as 500 libbrae of the city of Florence, one of England's most important customers in the wool trade.
The 364-pound sack was legalized by Edward III in 1340, when he declared the sack weighed 26 stones, each stone weighing 14 pounds. These values for the stone and sack survived for six centuries.
, Kings at War, Frank McLynn, 2007
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