Mister Monkey is trying to get a feel for what twenty ducats would have bought you in Castille in the early 1500s. Anyone know? Or know any websites that would know?
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 6 January 2006 22:54 (twenty years ago)
Depends on what the strumpet is offering. Twenty ducats is quite a lot for a hand shandy.
Alright, I'll give you a clue (he's saying "liars, liars" beside me, so we'd better come up with something convincing soon). Twenty ducats was a labourer's wage for a year.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:01 (twenty years ago)
Alright, I'll throw in a half-acre of Catalonian soil and a freeview box.
― chap who would dare to work for the man (chap), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:06 (twenty years ago)
You are no help. I'm off to bed, because he's really annoying me with this stuff.
It is one of the things that bugs me about history books, though. They hardly ever bother to give you clear sense of what money was worth in Yore or other Olden Times. The only book I've read recently where the author made an effort at all was Simon Winchester's The Man Who Sold the Map.
God, I'm drunk. Time for bed.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)
In 1500 - exactly?
That's somewhat before the huge influx of New World gold into Spain from the conquests of Mexico and Peru. So, that would also be prior to the huge inflation that the plundered gold caused, first in Spain and then Europe generally. By 1550, prices were going crazy.
If you're talking staple goods, such as grain, oil, wine and so on, twenty ducats would have purchased a pretty considerable amount. I can't tell you exactly, but think in terms of something like several dozen bushels of grain or several barrels of local wine.
If you're talking luxury goods like silk, or other fine cloth, think a whole lot less. The only items that would have been cheap and plentiful in Castille in that year would have been locally produced agricultural products or coarse homespun woolens. Anything imported would have been quite dear. Land was not really for sale very often, since land ownership was the main basis for nobility.
That's the best guesswork I can do without actually seeking out the meager hard data that historians have been able to sift out from the surviving tax records and such like. I hope that helps a bit.
― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 7 January 2006 04:52 (twenty years ago)
This site has some good info, but doesn't try to give straight equivalents of purchasing power in terms of commodities.
I states:
Unfortunately there are serious difficulties in the use of commodity prices in fifteenth-century Castile. The main problem is that the available figures are irregular and unreliable. The adequate supply of grain was fundamental to the living standards of the population, but its price varied from day to day and, in times of scarcity, from hour to hour. It is possible to gain a fair impression of the prices of meat, olive oil and soap in Córdoba over the period 1493-1514, thanks to the actas capitulares, but this information unfortunately covers the least interesting period for prices, which followed Ferdindand and Isabella's efforts to stabilise the coinage. While the prices of these three commodities in Córdoba rose in that period by an average of forty-six per cent, such figures are no substitute for coin values, as they cover such a short period. In general, it appears that over a longer period the trend in prices was steadily upwards...
― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 7 January 2006 05:11 (twenty years ago)
Jaq, Aimless, Joe, thanks for your help. Those are good answers.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 7 January 2006 08:09 (twenty years ago)