Medieval wages and prices, with every source
Today's price of gold and silver
Today's price. We take the live spot price of the metal in US dollars per troy ounce (31.1035 g), convert your salary to dollars with today's exchange rate, and divide. Spot right now: gold $3,917 and silver $49.28 per ounce. Dealers add a premium of a few percent on real bars, which we ignore.
Where the figures come from. The spot price is gold-api.com's and is asked for every half hour; the exchange rates are ExchangeRate-API's and are asked for four times a day. If a feed does not answer, a price baked into the site stands in and the monthly line says "cached price" instead of how old the quote is.
Standard pieces. Your metal is split greedily, largest piece first, into the sizes bullion actually comes in. Gold:
400 oz Good Delivery bar = 12.4 kg
1 kg bar = 1 kg
100 g bar = 100 g
50 g bar = 50 g
1 oz coin = 31.1 g
½ oz coin = 15.6 g
10 g bar = 10 g
¼ oz coin = 7.78 g
1⁄10 oz coin = 3.11 g
1 g bar = 1 g
Silver:
1000 oz Good Delivery bar = 31.1 kg
100 oz bar = 3.11 kg
1 kg bar = 1 kg
500 g bar = 500 g
100 g bar = 100 g
1 oz coin = 31.1 g
10 g bar = 10 g
¼ oz coin = 7.78 g
1⁄10 oz coin = 3.11 g
1 g bar = 1 g
Sizes. The hand is a side view of an adult's hand scaled to the ANSUR II survey means, 19.3 cm for men and 18.1 cm for women, wrist to fingertip. Pieces are drawn at the dimensions of typical products (a Good Delivery bar 250 × 70 × 35 mm, a kilo bar 112 × 52 × 9 mm, a 1 oz coin 33 × 33 × 2.4 mm); the density of gold, 19.32 g/cm³, and of silver, 10.49 g/cm³, checks every size against its weight. Ounces are troy ounces of 31.1035 g.
Medieval pay, penny by penny
Medieval pay. Wages are converted through the fine gold in the coins of their own year. The English crown fixed the value of its gold coins in pence, so a penny of 1351–1412 was worth 0.0967 g of gold (the noble: 7.74 g fine = 6s 8d), a penny of 1412–1465 0.087 g, of 1465–1526 0.0645 g (the angel) and of 1526–1544 0.0573 g. Before 1344 England struck no gold, but the Florentine florin passed at about 3s in London, which gives the same rate. Day-wage earners are assumed to be paid 250 days a year (about 21 a month); soldiers under contract were paid every day; yearly incomes are divided by twelve. Ranks are a game, not a purchasing-power comparison: in 1351 a gram of gold bought about five days of unskilled labour in England, where today it buys one or two.
- 1247–1412: 1d = 0.0967 g
- 1412–1465: 1d = 0.087 g
- 1465–1526: 1d = 0.0645 g
- 1526–1544: 1d = 0.0573 g
Silver. The penny itself was sterling silver (0.925 fine), and it too was lightened in steps: 22.2 grains in 1279, 20 in 1346, 18 in 1351, 15 in 1412, 12 in 1464 and 10⅔ in 1526, so a penny of 1351–1412 held 1.08 g of fine silver (Munro's coinage tables). The silver ladder converts the same wage records at those standards. Gold and silver disagree only through the price of one in the other: the mint valued an ounce of gold at 11.2 ounces of silver in 1351, and today it buys 79, which is why the same salary climbs higher in silver.
- 1247–1279: 1d = 1.3375 g
- 1279–1344: 1d = 1.332 g
- 1344–1346: 1d = 1.2168 g
- 1346–1351: 1d = 1.1988 g
- 1351–1412: 1d = 1.0789 g
- 1412–1464: 1d = 0.8991 g
- 1464–1526: 1d = 0.7193 g
- 1526–1544: 1d = 0.6393 g
Women's ladder. Women appear in the same account rolls, usually at two-thirds to three-quarters of a man's day rate, and in trades of their own: brewing, spinning, silk, midwifery, the convent and the court. The richest women were widows and queens living on dower — a third of the husband's estate for life.
Medieval money explained: pounds, shillings and pence →
The Statute of Labourers 1351: what every trade was paid →
What a year of ordinary life cost
Ordinary life. The basket is Robert Allen's respectability basket: fixed yearly quantities per adult, priced with his London series for 1350 from Rogers' institutional accounts — 316 g of silver, or £1 2s. Rent is Clark's constant-quality house rent for the same year, 3s 1d a year, from the Winchester and Cheapside records. A family of four eats three baskets and pays one rent (Allen's rule); the Church's tenth is a tenth of clear gains, due in principle and rarely collected in full. Silver needs no conversion; gold goes through the mint ratio of 1350, 12.4 ounces of silver to one of gold. Over 1346–1355 the basket swung about a fifth either way, and 1350 was a dear year.
Where every figure comes from
What rests on what. The wage ladder and the cost of ordinary life come from the economic-history literature — Allen, Clark, Munro, Ormrod, Thrupp, the Statute of Labourers, the 1535 valuation. A few of the eye-catching prices — a castle, a cathedral window, a king's ransom, a warhorse — come from general reference works instead, and are here to give a sense of scale rather than as evidence. Every figure on this page links to where it came from, so you can tell one from the other.
Download the tables: wages (CSV) · prices (CSV)
SHOW THE FULL WAGE TABLE AND SOURCES
SIR
| Rank | Where & when | Recorded wage | Pence / month | Gold / month | Silver / month | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Beggar | England, after 1349 | Since 1349 anyone who gives to a beggar fit to work can be jailed | — | — | — | link |
 Serf | England, around 1300–1350 | About £1 5s a year as the manor's ploughman, four-fifths of it in grain | 25d | 2.42 g | 33.3 g | link |
 Farm labourer | England, 1351 | 2d a day, the reaper's rate the Statute set for early August; most days paid nearer 2¾d | 42d | 4.03 g | 45 g | link |
 Foot soldier | England, 1345–1355 | 2d a day on campaign, every day | 60d | 5.8 g | 71.9 g | link |
 Town labourer | Southern England, 1361–1400 | 3d a day | 63d | 6.04 g | 67.4 g | link |
 Longbowman | England, 1346–1355 | 3d a day on campaign | 90d | 8.7 g | 108 g | link |
 Court jester | The court of Edward IV, 1478 | 4½d a day at court, 20s a year and a share of 4 gallons of ale, the minstrels' rate in the royal household book | 155d | 10 g | 111 g | link |
 Master mason | England, 1362–1536 | 6d a day | 125d | 12.1 g | 135 g | link |
 Parish priest | England, 14th century | About £10 a year for a middling parish; a hired chaplain was capped at 6 marks, £4, in 1350 | 200d | 19.3 g | 240 g | link |
 Mercenary | Florence, 1349–1350 | 6 to 8 florins a month for a horseman, a German more than an Italian; 3 or 4 for a crossbowman | — | 24.5 g | 302 g | link |
 Man-at-arms | England, 1316–1355 | 12d a day: half a knight's wage | 360d | 34.8 g | 432 g | link |
 Knight | England, 1346–1355 | 2s a day at war; you needed £40 a year in land to be made a knight | 720d | 69.6 g | 864 g | link |
 Royal physician | Thomas Morstede, the king's surgeon, 1410 | £40 a year as the king's surgeon, on condition you served nobody else | 800d | 77.4 g | 863 g | link |
 Merchant | London, around 1400 | About £100 a year: what £1,000 in trade returned to a London alderman | 2,000d | 193 g | 2.16 kg | link |
 Baron | England, around 1337 | About £500 a year in rents, the most a baron could hope for | 10,000d | 967 g | 13.3 kg | link |
 Earl | England, around 1300–1340 | About £1,500 a year from land; £1,000 was the least an earl lived on, and the richest four had over £4,000 | 30,000d | 2.9 kg | 40 kg | link |
 Abbot | Glastonbury Abbey, 1535 | £3,311 a year clear, the richest house in England | 66,220d | 3.79 kg | 42.3 kg | link |
 Bishop | Canterbury, around 1290–1300 | About £2,600 a year; Winchester was richer still, at £4,000 | 52,000d | 5.03 kg | 69.3 kg | link |
 Duke | John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 1394 | About £8,000 to £10,000 a year clear | 200,000d | 19.3 kg | 216 kg | link |
 King | Edward III, 1355–1370 | About £100,000 a year: £75,000 from the duty on wool, the rest from crown lands, the courts and dues | 2,000,000d | 193 kg | 2.16 t | link |
LADY
| Rank | Where & when | Recorded wage | Pence / month | Gold / month | Silver / month | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Beggar woman | England, after 1349 | Since 1349 anyone who gives to a beggar fit to work can be jailed | — | — | — | link |
 Dairymaid | Cuxham, Oxfordshire, 1278 | Grain worth about 13s 9d a year, and no cash | 14d | 1.33 g | 18.4 g | link |
 Alewife | Brigstock, Northamptonshire, around 1340 | About 10d clear per brew, brewing every fortnight; most women brewed only a few times a year | 22d | 2.1 g | 28.9 g | link |
 Spinster | Laleham, Middlesex, 1290 | 2d per pound of wool carded and spun; at three-quarters of a pound a day, about 1¼d | 26d | 2.52 g | 34.7 g | link |
 Household servant | Sussex, 1474 | 16d a month in cash, plus your food and bed | 46d | 2.97 g | 33.1 g | link |
 Embroideress | London, the king's embroidery workshop, 1330 | 2¾d a day; the men beside you got 4¼d | 57d | 5.54 g | 76.3 g | link |
 Harvest reaper | Pocklington, Yorkshire, 1363 | 3d a day and your food at harvest; the two men on the roll got 4d, and so did nine of the women | 83d | 8.06 g | 89.9 g | link |
 Royal laundress | The court of Henry VI, 1424 | £5 a year | 100d | 8.7 g | 90 g | link |
 Nun | Rusper Priory, Sussex, 1442 | A house income of about £44 a year, shared by a prioress and seven nuns | 110d | 9.57 g | 98.9 g | link |
 Royal midwife | Marjory Cobbe, 1469 | £10 a year pension for delivering the queen | 200d | 12.9 g | 144 g | link |
 Royal wet nurse | Joan Astley, nurse to Henry VI, 1424 | £20 a year, later raised to £40 | 400d | 34.8 g | 360 g | link |
 Prioress | Rusper Priory, 1535 | £39 a year clear; your own pension, when the house closed, was £5 | 780d | 44.7 g | 499 g | link |
 Lady-in-waiting | Anne Woodville, 1466 | £40 a year in the queen's service | 800d | 51.6 g | 575 g | link |
 Merchant widow | Rose de Burford, London, around 1317 | About £100 a year: what £1,000 in trade returned to a London alderman | 2,000d | 193 g | 2.66 kg | link |
 Baroness | England, a widow's right by law | A third of the barony for life: about £167 a year on a £500 barony | 3,333d | 322 g | 4.44 kg | link |
 Abbess | Shaftesbury Abbey, Dorset, 1535 | £1,166 a year clear, the richest nunnery in England | 23,320d | 1.34 kg | 14.9 kg | link |
 Countess | Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare, 1314–1360 | About £2,000 a year from your share of the Clare lands, nearer £3,000 with your dowers | 40,000d | 3.87 kg | 53.3 kg | link |
 Royal mistress | Alice Perrers, 1376 | £2,000 to £3,000 a year in land and gifts, by the Commons' reckoning | 50,000d | 4.84 kg | 53.9 kg | link |
 Duchess | Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, 1461 | 5,000 marks a year from estates and customs | 66,667d | 5.8 kg | 59.9 kg | link |
 Queen | Margaret of Anjou, 1446 | A dower of 10,000 marks a year | 133,333d | 11.6 kg | 120 kg | link |
Caveats: medieval day-labour was seasonal (some historians assume only 210 paid days a year); serfs, priests and household servants got food, lodging and land on top of cash; noble and royal figures are gross revenues that also fed a household of dozens. Figures collected from the Statute of Labourers (1351), Munro's revised Phelps Brown–Hopkins builders' series, Edward III's army pay lists, Caferro's Florentine wage tables and standard estate-income estimates.
SHOW THE 1350 BASKET AND SOURCES
| Good | A year, per adult | 1350 price, silver | Pence / year | Gold | Silver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bread · priced from the wheat quotation with Allen's bread equation | 182 kg | 0.729 g | 9s 3d | 10.7 g | 133 g |
| beans and peas | 52 l | 0.251 g | 11d | 1.05 g | 13 g |
| meat | 26 kg | 0.901 g | 1s 8d | 1.89 g | 23.4 g |
| butter | 5.2 kg | 2.592 g | 11d | 1.09 g | 13.5 g |
| cheese | 5.2 kg | 1.25 g | 5d | 0.52 g | 6.5 g |
| eggs · Rogers' price doubled for London | 52 | 0.095 g | 4d | 0.4 g | 4.93 g |
| ale | 182 l | 0.192 g | 2s 5d | 2.82 g | 34.9 g |
| soap · extrapolated from candle prices before 1400 | 2.6 kg | 7.613 g | 1s 5d | 1.6 g | 19.8 g |
| linen · held constant before 1400 in Allen's file | 5 m | 5 g | 1s 9d | 2.02 g | 25 g |
| candles · set from lamp-oil prices before 1400 | 2.6 kg | 4.845 g | 11d | 1.02 g | 12.6 g |
| lamp oil | 2.6 l | 4.413 g | 10d | 0.93 g | 11.5 g |
| fuel (charcoal, by heat) · charcoal, by heat content | 5 million BTU | 3.61 g | 1s 3d | 1.46 g | 18 g |
| rent of a house (Clark's constant-quality series) | — | — | 3s 1d | 3.59 g | 44.5 g |
| one adult | — | — | £1 5s 1d | 29.1 g | 360 g |
| a family of four | — | — | £3 9s | 80 g | 992 g |
Sources: Allen, The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War (2001), table 3 and his London price file; Clark, The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209–2004 (2005) and his England 1209–1914 series; Munro's revised Phelps Brown–Hopkins basket for the price level. Household, place, year, status, board and uncertainty are set out in the project's decision record ADR-0012.
SHOW THE 1350 PRICE LIST AND SOURCES
| Item | Price as recorded | Gold | Silver | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 farthing loaf of bread | ¼d (14th c.) · Price fixed by law; the loaf's weight moved with the wheat price | 0.02 g | 0.27 g | link |
 dozen eggs | 2 dozen for 1d (1351–60) · Clark's manorial series averages 0.51d a dozen | 0.05 g | 0.54 g | link |
 gallon of ale | 1d (14th c.) · Ordinary grade; best London ale 1¼d | 0.1 g | 1.2 g | link |
 night at an inn | 1d a head (1331) · Bed only; food itemised separately | 0.1 g | 1.33 g | link |
 hen | 4d (London 1363) · Capon 6d; a plain chicken ½d in the countryside | 0.39 g | 4.32 g | link |
 gallon of Gascon wine | 4d (London 1331) · Rhenish 8d; sweet Malmsey 16d | 0.39 g | 5.33 g | link |
 day of a master mason | 6d a day (London 1350) · Summer rate in the London ordinance; the 1351 statute capped a master freemason at 4d | 0.58 g | 7.19 g | link |
 peasant's sword | 6d (1340s) · A cheap sword from a peasant's inventory; the Merton warden's cost 1s 2d in 1296 | 0.58 g | 7.3 g | link |
 pair of leather shoes | 6d (London 1350) · Fixed by ordinance; boots 3s 6d | 0.58 g | 7.19 g | link |
 goose | 6d (London 1363–75) · The mayor fined a poulterer asking 7–8d | 0.58 g | 6.47 g | link |
 pound of pepper | 1s 5d (1351–60) · About 1s before the plague, 2s 6d in 1350 itself, then settling near 1s 5d (Rogers) | 1.64 g | 18.3 g | link |
 sheep | 1s 5d (mid-14th c.) · A Somerset wether went for 9–10d | 1.64 g | 20.4 g | link |
 plough | 1s 6d (1351–70) · The wooden frame; the iron share and coulter were extra (a foot-iron 5d) | 1.74 g | 19.4 g | link |
 pound of loaf sugar | 1s 6d (1390s) · From the Earl of Derby's household accounts | 1.74 g | 19.4 g | link |
 longbow and 24 arrows | 1s + 1s 2d (1341) · Royal purchase prices; four days of an archer's pay | 2.51 g | 34.6 g | link |
 pig | 2s–3s (1338) · 2s in Somerset, 3s in London | 2.9 g | 40 g | link |
 peasant's wool tunic | 3s (1313) · Cloth 8d–1s 3d a yard plus tailoring | 3.48 g | 48 g | link |
 year's cottage rent | 5s a year (14th c.) · A craftsman's house let for 20s, a merchant's for £2–£3 | 5.8 g | 71.9 g | link |
 fur-lined garment | 6s 8d (early 14th c.) · Exactly one gold noble | 7.74 g | 107 g | link |
 cow | 9s 5d (1261–1400 average) · 10s 2d in the 1350s; 6s in 1285–90 (Rogers, Dyer) | 10.9 g | 135 g | link |
 ox | 13s 1¼d (mid-14th c.) · The tractor of the manor | 15.2 g | 189 g | link |
 cart horse | 17s (1351–60) · Rogers' decade average; a gentleman's riding horse cost £4–£5 | 19.7 g | 220 g | link |
 hand-copied book | ≈ 18s (1397) · 126 books bought for £113; a 15th-century Peterhouse copy itemised parchment 6s 9d, copying 36s, illumination 8d, binding 2s | 20.9 g | 233 g | link |
 year's food for one adult | £2 a year (about 1380) · A groom was fed for 1d a day, a yeoman for 3d; board of a loaf and a gallon of ale a day cost about £3 | 46.4 g | 518 g | link |
 one-bay cottage | £2 (early 14th c.) · Two storeys; rent 5s a year | 46.4 g | 639 g | link |
 year at Oxford | £8 10s 8d (1374) · Board, clothing and instruction for a well-born student; a poor scholar managed on £2–£3 | 198 g | 2.21 kg | link |
 craftsman's townhouse | £12 (early 14th c.) · A working house with a shop, a workshop and room for the workers; two or three bays, tiled roof; a merchant's house was £33–66 | 278 g | 3.84 kg | link |
 squire's ransom | £16 (1360) · Edward III paid it to free the young Geoffrey Chaucer | 371 g | 4.14 kg | link |
 knight's full armour | £16 6s 8d (1374) · All the armour in one knight's inventory, probably mail with plates; the helmet alone was 13s 4d | 379 g | 4.23 kg | link |
 great stained-glass window | £56 (1405) · John Thornton's contract for York Minster's Great East Window: 4s a week for three years, £5 a year on time and £10 on completion | 1.3 kg | 14.5 kg | link |
 warhorse | £80 (about 1290) · The elite 5 % of warhorses; an average appraised warhorse of the 1340s was nearer £10–£16, and William de Bohun lost one valued at £100 in 1339 | 1.86 kg | 25.6 kg | link |
 Harlech Castle | £8,190 (1282–89) · Caernarfon with its walls ran to £20,000+ | 190 kg | 2.62 t | link |
 ransom of the King of France | £500,000 (1360) · Three million écus for John II, captured at Poitiers, agreed at Brétigny; about four years of the English crown's whole income | 11.6 t | 129 t | link |
SHOW THE HOMES' COSTS AND SOURCES
What a home cost. The home chapter tells each price in plain words; here is the figure as recorded, what it is, and where it comes from.
| Rank | Home | As recorded | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beggar | the roadside and a hospital's hall | — | link |
| Serf | a long thatched house shared with the cattle | £2 to build a one-bay cottage, c. 1300 · Dyer's figure for the cheapest peasant house; a longhouse cost more | link · link |
| Farm labourer | a small rented cottage on the manor | 5s a year in rent · a 14th-century cottage rent in Dyer's Standards of Living | link · link |
| Foot soldier | a hut in the army's winter camp | — | link |
| Town labourer | a timber row house in York | up to £5 to build a row house in York, c. 1300 · Dyer's building cost for one tenement of a row | link · link |
| Longbowman | a field camp or a captured town | — | link |
| Court jester | wherever the court lodges | — | link |
| Master mason | the lodge on site and a town house | £10 to £15 to build a craftsman's house, c. 1300 · two or three bays under a tiled roof (Dyer); the lower figure is used | link · link |
| Parish priest | a stone house beside the church | £12 to build a modest hall and chamber, 1289 · a house of a parsonage's scale (Dyer), not a documented rectory | link · link |
| Mercenary | a billet in a Florentine frontier town | — | link |
| Man-at-arms | a timber hall house on a small holding | — | link |
| Knight | a moated stone manor house | — | link |
| Royal physician | a London citizen's house near Cheapside | — | link |
| Merchant | a merchant's mansion in Bishopsgate | £11 6s 8d a year in ground rent, 1466 · Sir John Crosby's 99-year lease of the site from St Helen's priory; the mansion itself is not costed | link |
| Baron | Warkworth Castle, a baron's stronghold | — | link |
| Earl | Warwick Castle, a great earl's fortress | — | link |
| Abbot | the abbot's house and kitchen at Glastonbury | — | link |
| Bishop | the archbishop's palace at Canterbury | — | link |
| Duke | Kenilworth Castle and the Savoy | — | link |
| King | Windsor Castle, rebuilt as a palace | £51,000 spent on Windsor, 1350–1377 · Edward III's outlay on the Upper Ward, the most expensive secular building project of medieval England | link |
| Beggar woman | no house: a hospital's open hall | — | link |
| Dairymaid | the manor farm at Cuxham | — | link |
| Alewife | a peasant's timber house in Brigstock | £2 to £11 to build a cruck house, £4 the median · documented costs of Midland cruck houses (Alcock and Dyer); landlords often supplied the timber | link |
| Spinster | a cottage on Laleham's village street | — | link |
| Household servant | the open hall of a Weald farmhouse | — | link |
| Embroideress | a room over a shop in Soper Lane | £1 13s 4d a year for a shop in Soper Lane, 1309 · a seven-year lease in Alice la Wymplere's tenement; the next shop went for £1 | link |
| Harvest reaper | a cottage on its plot in Pocklington | — | link |
| Royal laundress | the servants' lodgings at Windsor Castle | — | link |
| Nun | the nuns' dormitory at Rusper Priory | — | link |
| Royal midwife | a townhouse near your patients | — | link |
| Royal wet nurse | the royal nursery at Windsor Castle | — | link |
| Prioress | Rusper Priory, a small nunnery | — | link |
| Lady-in-waiting | the queen's palace at Greenwich | — | link |
| Merchant widow | your houses in Bread Street | — | link |
| Baroness | a moated dower manor house | — | link |
| Abbess | the abbess's lodging at Shaftesbury Abbey | — | link |
| Countess | Clare Castle in Suffolk | — | link |
| Royal mistress | Pallenswick, your moated manor in Fulham | — | link |
| Duchess | Baynard's Castle on the Thames | — | link |
| Queen | the palace of Pleasaunce at Greenwich | — | link |