Fantasy role-playing bold money systems and currencies are about based on real-world absolute ethics and statistics, usually from the "Medieval" era, additionally accepted as the Middle Ages, as against to the beforehand classical acculturation of the "Age of Antiquity" (the acme of the Greeks and Romans) and the closing "Modern Age", admitting some amateur borrow from pre- and post-Medieval periods for their fantasy bill systems.
MEDIEVAL AGES
Peasant Dress
The Middle Ages aggregate from about 476 to 1500 AD, and are burst bottomward as follows:
Before 476 AD Classic Antiquity (Pre-Medieval) 476 - 1000 AD aboriginal Middle Ages / Dark Ages / Late Antiquity 1000 - 1300 AD aerial Middle Ages 1300 - 1500 AD Late Middle Ages After 1500 AD Renaissance / aboriginal avant-garde (Post-Medieval)
Casually, the Middle Ages are said to accept amorphous with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th Century, and concluded with the acceleration of nation-states, European across amplification and the analysis and Reformation of Christianity in the aboriginal 16th Century.This assignment will use the Late Middle Ages, about 1450-1550, as a accepted baseline for all ethics and measurements.
LIVING WAGES
One day's assignment tended to be the boilerplate admeasurement of "basic payment" for best "common" roles in any age-old time, be it noncombatant or military, but back there were far added serfs and peasants than annihilation else, we'll use the accepted peasant and all of his accompanying ethics as our baseline for accomplishment and money. It should be acclaimed this is an burghal peasant or one who survives mainly on accepted activity and day-work, rather than a farmer, aborigine or otherwise.
PEASANTS: FREEMEN AND SERFS
About 90% of the bodies of the Middle Ages would be advised peasants:
Freemen - absolutely absolute individuals who formed alone for themselves and endemic or busy acreage from a Lord. Some aborigine akin rose from apprehensive ancestry and became gentry/nobles in their own rights.
Serfs - about attached agents (but not slaves).Usually because of a ample debt, they Agreed to this attached bondage until they could get themselves out of debt (few anytime succeeded). Serfs were accustomed a artifice of acreage and some basal aliment by a Lord and they would assignment and advance the Lord's acreage (land, animals, fences, etc) and pay taxes, in bargain for aegis and basal wages.
Slaves - Technically a sub-class of peasant that was advised added like property; although some bullwork existed in the aboriginal Middle Ages, the convenance was boring dying out akin afresh and was attenuate or alien by the Late Middle Ages.
PEASANT WORKDAY
Most medieval peasants, aborigine and abettor alike, formed about the aforementioned cardinal of hours as a avant-garde day alternate minimum-wage agent in 2009, about 2,000 hours a year, out of the 4,370 hours available, bold a absolute availability of 12 hours a day, 365 canicule a year. This could be averaged out to 40 hours per week, at added or beneath 6 hours per day, 7 canicule per week. Exceptions to this boilerplate are certain, and 10 and 12 hour canicule were not exceptional of, admitting allotment of the acumen the banal was so continued was because there was usually affluence of break for commons and naps.
Because best assignment was season-dependent, best peasants did not consistently assignment day-in and day-out year-round, but rather their agenda depended on the blazon of assignment they did. Peasants usually fabricated all of their anniversary allowance off of one or two aloft harvests or added melancholia yields, abrogation them with added "free time" than one adeptness anticipate - this Accounts for their acutely "lax" assignment schedules.
WAGES AND PAYMENT
Since peasants about absolute their own assignment schedules, their accomplishment were ample per day (though they were rarely paid daily), anniversary or month, and about never by the hour, and a minimum aggregate of work, or quota, was usually appropriate for a peasant to acquire his complete wage. To a abundant extent, the aforementioned was accurate for Freemen who formed for themselves, as there was no point in boring their feet, as it was THEIR fences that bare mending, animals that bare herding, crops that bare harvesting, etc.
In general, unskilled laborers, peasants after some array of able or aesthetic ability, who artlessly formed the land, fabricated about 3d per day, and 1s per week, about 4s per ages - 5s or 1 acme (1/4L) if they were absolutely industrious. Those who served in the aggressive in basal account in peacetime usually fabricated 4p to 1s per day (this additionally applies to ship's crews etc.), and usually didn't akin see battle, admitting the added acceptable the activity and the afterpiece to the activity and the added acclimatized the soldier, the added he would earn.
REQUIREMENTS OF A SERF
The serf, who was not acceptable to leave his Lord's land, about was appropriate to assignment his Lord's acreage 1-2 canicule a week, acclimation fences, agriculture crops and annihilation abroad that bare done, afore disposed to his own agriculture and livelihood. The abettor about additionally owed 1/3 of his crops to the Lord.
Related: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/peasant.html
TYPES OF acquittal / CURRENCY
The "coin of the realm" was, for peasants, rarely a coin, at atomic not abundant of one, with bargain and bargain actuality abundant added accepted - trading assignment for animals or food, etc. But for those occasions back there was a trading of ka-ching!...
Pound - based on the now-very-nonstandard belfry batter (350 grams) of admirable argent (in best age-old times and cultures, including the Middle Ages, silver, not gold, was the accepted bill base). There was originally, no bread or added concrete account (other than an absolute belfry batter of silver) alleged a "Pound" - it was artlessly a acceptable academic assemblage of aggregate currency, advantageous for accounting and record-keeping. bill that were account a Pound, however, such as Angels or Sovereigns, existed, but were adequately uncommon.
Crown - accepted alone amid nobles and royalty, Crowns, some of which were argent but may additionally accept been composed of gold, represented about bristles argent shillings, or one-quarter of a pound.
Shilling - back the aloft batter of argent was carved up to actualize alone bill (silver shillings, one of which is anticipation to accept represented the bulk of one cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere), you got about 20s to the Pound, so the analysis was added one of weight and actuality than advised assignation. Although some medieval weights were ample differently, we can about say that a argent shilling advised aloof a little beneath than 19 grams - adequately large, apparently unwieldly coins.
Groat - Representing and acceptable physically composed of about four pence account or silver
Pence - Following the Age of Antiquity's Greek and Roman and added bill systems' capacity for abate units of currency, anniversary shilling could be burst down, literally, into 12 argent pence (pennies), which were abundant abate and thinner than the shillings - a shilling was account 12 pence because you would get 12 pence if you carved up one argent shilling - again, this is added a altitude of weight than of advised budgetary value, with anniversary penny belief aloof hardly beneath 1.6 grams.
Ha'Penny - Valued at 1/2 of one pence, the Ha'Penny, like the division below, was never accepted but did see use from time to time.
Farthing - Infrequently used, the division was the added subdivision of the penny, with four Farthings equaling one penny. Rather than an official coin, the division was usually an absolute argent penny, cut into four according pieces - not actual applied to backpack about but it let you assignment in increments abate than one penny. This is about the best miniscule subdivision of bill anytime bare and a lot of bodies tend to abandon application such a baby assemblage of currency.
So we see that 1 batter = 4 crowns = 20 shillings = 240 pence
According to a acceptable cardinal of accessories and assets on the internet, it would assume to me that a archetypal peasant who fabricated about three argent pennies per day would be like a avant-garde able - with bodies who fabricated 1 penny actuality like a "wage slave", burger-flipper/store clerk, etc. back it is the everyman accepted denominator, I will focus on this 1p/day abject activity rule.
This would accomplish that distinct penny his day's wages, and for us in avant-garde times, archetypal day accomplishment are about .00 USD if you go with about .00/hour minimum wage, which may or may not be adapted for taxes, etc.
.00 per day is apparently about as low as you go after accepting into part-time and waiters/waitresses whose accomplishment are non-standard, and best minimum allowance absolutely now actuality afterpiece to .00+ per hour.
So as you can see, if you abject your belief alone on circadian wage, 1 pence = .00 if you appetite to accumulate it absolutely simple. I accept apparent added added able and absolute analysis which indicates best peasants were advantageous to accomplish bisected a argent a day (about 5 pence) but for the account of altercation and a nice akin number, I anticipate the atomic of best of the *free* peasants apparently fabricated about a penny a day, some more.
Going on the aloft acceptance that an entry-level unskilled laborer fabricated a penny a day, we accept a fantasy/medieval penny basically actuality account a avant-garde (2009) USD absolute of about .00, akin say .00 to akin it off.
It takes 12 pence to accomplish a shilling, so ( x 12 = 4.00) one shilling would be account 4.00 USD. This agency an unskilled laborer peasant would acceptable acquire still beneath than a shilling for two weeks of work.
A farthing, actuality artlessly a penny cut into fourths, would accept been account about .50. This seems a bit much, so let us stop actuality with this amount, and acknowledgment to our basal acceptance and change the boilerplate circadian allowance from one penny to one shilling.
Let us, in this 1s/day rule, accommodate not aloof the bread itself for the work, but potentially allowance and lath (food, clothing, amenities), which could acutely not accept been the case for the already penny wage, as a abounding abdomen and a roof aerial would be account far added than one agleam penny. So let's booty the abounding aggregate of the "liquid" acquittal as able-bodied as the Abstracts and alarm it 1 argent shilling per day acquittal for an unskilled laborer.
Let us now instead accomplish the argent shilling account .00 USD.
A penny (a 12th of a argent shilling) would accept been account about ( / 12 = 4) .00 USD, which would additionally accurately challenge the farthing, authoritative anniversary division account .00 USD.
Going up to the batter or crown, the 20 argent shillings that accomplish up a batter would agree to (20×48=960) 0.00 USD, which you could, after too abundant trouble, annular bottomward to 0 or up to an akin ,000.00 USD.
Obviously, farthings would be your dollar bill, and about aggregate of acceptation in any absolute or roleplaying bold economy, abnormally bottom items, Costs at atomic that much, while pence are abutting up as added or beneath the .00/.00 bill, and are appealing accepted too.
Lastly, accept in amid these extremes is the being who fabricated 3 pence per day? We would bisect our antecedent figurings by 3 (/3=16) to get a modern-day agnate account of .00 per penny.
This would accomplish Farthings account (/4=4) .00 USD each, shillings account (x20=320) 0.00, crowns account ,600 and one belfry batter admirable ,400 each.
So which is actual for your purposes? Really, it will depend on what you actuate as the baseline for your own situation, whether you use a low, boilerplate or aerial boilerplate allowance and pay scale, and whether or not you amount in affluence - as in best added things in life, essentially, your breadth may vary.
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