Money in the middle ages
By the fourteenth century, a number of different systems of local coinage existed. Determining their value at any one moment, individually or in relation to one another, can be terribly difficult. Documentary evidence is spotty and inconsistent, but it nevertheless quickly becomes a welter of confusing detail. Several scholars, most notably Peter Spufford, have done tremendous work making sense of it all, but it still can be difficult to translate into general terms.
From the reign of Philip II Augustus (r. 1180-1223), the most common system of money in France was based on the livre tournois, or pound of Tours, which coexisted for a time with the livre parisis, or pound of Paris, and effectively supplanted other currencies used in France. In every location, as in England until fairly recently, a pound was divided into twenty sous (shillings, solidus), and the sou in turn into twelve deniers (pennies, denarii). Deniers were the main coinage actually in circulation, while the livre was a unit of account more than a physical reality. Taxes, wages, and other financial transactions were carried out not only with coins but also (and sometimes more often) through goods and services.
In the 1220s the livre parisis was fixed at a 4:5 rate of exchange with the livre tournois—so one livre tournois would equal twenty sous tournois but sixteen sous parisis. Most royal accounting, however, took place in livres tournois. Other units were also introduced for everyday use. The franc, which was instituted in 1360, was initially valued at 20 sous tournois or 16 sous parisis, equivalent to the livre tournois. These were accounting units, though—coins larger than the denier were rarely used.
For international business, the Florentine florin was often used, and that also served as the primary unit of papal accounting as well. (Spufford, Handbook, liii) In 1300, according to Peter Spufford’s Handbook (table I, p. lx), the florin was worth 10s. tournois, or half a livre. His complete data (pp. 172ff), however, indicates much greater variability, exacerbated by the general use of “florin” in early fourteenth-century France to refer to any gold coin. The advent of the Hundred Years War creates even greater instability. By 1400 the florin had risen in value to 22s. tournois, just over a livre and twice its value in 1300.
What was this money worth in terms of purchasing power? That can be difficult to determine. Joseph and Frances Gies (142) give the wage of a quarry mason in mid-thirteenth-century Champagne as 24-30 deniers per week, plus food and lodging. According to Brown and Hopkins, for most of the fourteenth century a craftsman in southern England could expect to earn 4-5 pence per day. Since according to Spufford the florin was worth about 3 shillings sterling, that translates to a daily rate of just over one sou tournois. In another study, they calculate the same craftsman’s wage as varying in the fourteenth century between 2/3 and 1/3 of their composite unit of consumables, but on average perhaps half that unit, which suggests that two days’ work would purchase that unit. In the 1950s, the daily wage surpassed that unit, so the fourteenth-century craftsman’s purchasing power could be seen as roughly half that of modern times. (Of course, there are many expenses of modern life that didn’t exist in the middle ages, and the unit of consumables consists entirely of food, fuel and light, and textiles.)
Joseph and Frances Gies give prices of basic foodstuffs for Troyes in 1250 (48; amounts presumably in deniers provinois, but according to Spufford, Handbook, 164, the livre provinois was made equivalent to the livre tournois, probably in 1224):
fat capon: 6 deniers
rabbit: 5 deniers
wafers: 3 deniers / pound
oil (except olive): 7-9 deniers
salt: 2 deniers / 5 pounds
pepper: 4 deniers / ounce
Steven Proctor (“French Pricelist,” http://www.maisonstclaire.org/resources/pricelist/pricelist.html, accessed 22 February 2012) indicates that a warhorse cost 75 livres tournois in 1360, a squire’s mount 28 livres tournois. The horse Machaut received from Charles of Navarre was probably closer to the latter. He further estimates that a minor lord would earn about 500 livres parisis per year, which using the official 4:5 rate cited in Spufford translates to about 400 livres tournois or francs. This is not far off from the endowment mentioned in Machaut’s epitaph of 300 francs.
For further reading
Brown, E. H. Phelps, and Sheila V. Hopkins. “Seven Centuries of Building Wages.” Economica, new series, 22 (1955): 195-206.
Brown, E. H. Phelps, and Sheila V. Hopkins. “Seven Centuries of the Price of Consumables, Compared with Builders’ Wage-Rates.” Economica, new series, 23 (1956): 296-314.
Gies, Joseph and Frances. Life in a Medieval City. New York: HarperPerennial, 1981. (originally published 1969)
Proctor, Steven. “Money and Prices.” http://www.maisonstclaire.org/resources/pricelist/pricelist.html , accessed 1 August 2012.
Spufford, Peter. Money and its Use in Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Spufford, Peter, with the assistance of Wendy Wilkinson and Sarah Tolley. Handbook of Medieval Exchange. Royal Historical Guides and Handbooks 13. London: Royal Historical Society, 1986.
From the reign of Philip II Augustus (r. 1180-1223), the most common system of money in France was based on the livre tournois, or pound of Tours, which coexisted for a time with the livre parisis, or pound of Paris, and effectively supplanted other currencies used in France. In every location, as in England until fairly recently, a pound was divided into twenty sous (shillings, solidus), and the sou in turn into twelve deniers (pennies, denarii). Deniers were the main coinage actually in circulation, while the livre was a unit of account more than a physical reality. Taxes, wages, and other financial transactions were carried out not only with coins but also (and sometimes more often) through goods and services.
In the 1220s the livre parisis was fixed at a 4:5 rate of exchange with the livre tournois—so one livre tournois would equal twenty sous tournois but sixteen sous parisis. Most royal accounting, however, took place in livres tournois. Other units were also introduced for everyday use. The franc, which was instituted in 1360, was initially valued at 20 sous tournois or 16 sous parisis, equivalent to the livre tournois. These were accounting units, though—coins larger than the denier were rarely used.
For international business, the Florentine florin was often used, and that also served as the primary unit of papal accounting as well. (Spufford, Handbook, liii) In 1300, according to Peter Spufford’s Handbook (table I, p. lx), the florin was worth 10s. tournois, or half a livre. His complete data (pp. 172ff), however, indicates much greater variability, exacerbated by the general use of “florin” in early fourteenth-century France to refer to any gold coin. The advent of the Hundred Years War creates even greater instability. By 1400 the florin had risen in value to 22s. tournois, just over a livre and twice its value in 1300.
What was this money worth in terms of purchasing power? That can be difficult to determine. Joseph and Frances Gies (142) give the wage of a quarry mason in mid-thirteenth-century Champagne as 24-30 deniers per week, plus food and lodging. According to Brown and Hopkins, for most of the fourteenth century a craftsman in southern England could expect to earn 4-5 pence per day. Since according to Spufford the florin was worth about 3 shillings sterling, that translates to a daily rate of just over one sou tournois. In another study, they calculate the same craftsman’s wage as varying in the fourteenth century between 2/3 and 1/3 of their composite unit of consumables, but on average perhaps half that unit, which suggests that two days’ work would purchase that unit. In the 1950s, the daily wage surpassed that unit, so the fourteenth-century craftsman’s purchasing power could be seen as roughly half that of modern times. (Of course, there are many expenses of modern life that didn’t exist in the middle ages, and the unit of consumables consists entirely of food, fuel and light, and textiles.)
Joseph and Frances Gies give prices of basic foodstuffs for Troyes in 1250 (48; amounts presumably in deniers provinois, but according to Spufford, Handbook, 164, the livre provinois was made equivalent to the livre tournois, probably in 1224):
fat capon: 6 deniers
rabbit: 5 deniers
wafers: 3 deniers / pound
oil (except olive): 7-9 deniers
salt: 2 deniers / 5 pounds
pepper: 4 deniers / ounce
Steven Proctor (“French Pricelist,” http://www.maisonstclaire.org/resources/pricelist/pricelist.html, accessed 22 February 2012) indicates that a warhorse cost 75 livres tournois in 1360, a squire’s mount 28 livres tournois. The horse Machaut received from Charles of Navarre was probably closer to the latter. He further estimates that a minor lord would earn about 500 livres parisis per year, which using the official 4:5 rate cited in Spufford translates to about 400 livres tournois or francs. This is not far off from the endowment mentioned in Machaut’s epitaph of 300 francs.
For further reading
Brown, E. H. Phelps, and Sheila V. Hopkins. “Seven Centuries of Building Wages.” Economica, new series, 22 (1955): 195-206.
Brown, E. H. Phelps, and Sheila V. Hopkins. “Seven Centuries of the Price of Consumables, Compared with Builders’ Wage-Rates.” Economica, new series, 23 (1956): 296-314.
Gies, Joseph and Frances. Life in a Medieval City. New York: HarperPerennial, 1981. (originally published 1969)
Proctor, Steven. “Money and Prices.” http://www.maisonstclaire.org/resources/pricelist/pricelist.html , accessed 1 August 2012.
Spufford, Peter. Money and its Use in Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Spufford, Peter, with the assistance of Wendy Wilkinson and Sarah Tolley. Handbook of Medieval Exchange. Royal Historical Guides and Handbooks 13. London: Royal Historical Society, 1986.