Business Class In Emirates - Fantasy-Medieval RPG Wages and Money

Though some games borrow from pre- and post-Medieval periods for their fantasy currency systems, as opposed to the earlier classical civilization of the "Age of Antiquity" (the height of the Greeks and Romans) and the latter "Modern Age", also known as the Middle Ages, usually from the "Medieval" era, fantasy role-playing game money systems and currencies are typically based on real-world historical values and statistics.

MEDIEVAL AGES

And are broken down as follows: the Middle Ages span from about 476 to 1500 AD,

Before 476 AD Classic Antiquity (Pre-Medieval) 476 - 1000 AD Early Middle Ages / Dark Ages / Late Antiquity 1000 - 1300 AD High Middle Ages 1300 - 1500 AD Late Middle Ages After 1500 AD Renaissance / Early Modern (Post-Medieval)

As a general baseline for all values and measurements, about 1450-1550, european overseas expansion and the division and Reformation of Christianity in the early 16th Century.This work will use the Late Middle Ages, and ended with the rise of nation-states, the Middle Ages are said to have begun with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th Century, casually.

LIVING WAGES

Freeman or otherwise, rather than a farmer, it should be noted this is an urban peasant or one who survives mainly on general labor and day-work. We'll use the common peasant and all of his related values as our baseline for wages and money, but since there were far more serfs and peasants than anything else, be it civilian or military, one day's work tended to be the average measure of "basic payment" for most "common" roles in any ancient time.

PEASANTS: FREEMEN AND SERFS

About 90% of the people of the Middle Ages would be considered peasants:

Some Freeman even rose from humble beginnings and became gentry/nobles in their own rights. Freemen - fully independent individuals who worked only for themselves and owned or rented land from a Lord.

In exchange for security and minimal wages, etc) and pay taxes, fences, animals, serfs were given a plot of land and some basic supplies by a Lord and they would work and maintain the Lord's property (land. They agreed to this indentured servitude until they could get themselves out of debt (few ever succeeded), usually because of a large debt. Serfs - essentially indentured servants (but not slaves).

The practice was slowly dying out even then and was rare or unknown by the Late Middle Ages; although some slavery existed in the Early Middle Ages, slaves - Technically a sub-class of peasant that was treated more like property.

PEASANT WORKDAY

Though part of the reason the workday was so long was because there was usually plenty of breaks for meals and naps, and 10 and 12 hour days were not unheard of, exceptions to this average are certain. 7 days per week, at more or less 6 hours per day, this could be averaged out to 40 hours per week. 365 days a year, assuming a total availability of 12 hours a day, 370 hours available, out of the 4, 000 hours a year, about 2, worked approximately the same number of hours as a modern day hourly minimum-wage employee in 2009, freeman and Serf alike, most medieval peasants.

Leaving them with more "free time" than one might think - this accounts for their seemingly "lax" work schedules, peasants usually made all of their annual wage off of one or two major harvests or other seasonal yields. But rather their schedule depended on the type of work they did, most peasants did not always work day-in and day-out year-round, because most work was season-dependent.

WAGES AND PAYMENT

Etc, crops that needed harvesting, animals that needed herding, as it was THEIR fences that needed mending, as there was no point in dragging their feet, the same was true for Freemen who worked for themselves, to a great extent. Was usually required for a peasant to earn his complete wage, or quota, and a minimum amount of work, and almost never by the hour, week or month, their wages were figured per day (though they were rarely paid daily), since peasants generally self-governed their own work schedules.

The more he would earn, though the more likely the combat and the closer to the action and the more seasoned the soldier, and usually didn't even see battle, ). Those who served in the military in basic service in peacetime usually made 4p to 1s per day (this also applies to ship's crews etc. About 4s per month - 5s or 1 crown (1/4L) if they were really industrious, and 1s per week, made about 3d per day, who simply worked the land, peasants without some sort of professional or artistic ability, unskilled laborers, in general.

REQUIREMENTS OF A SERF

The Serf typically also owed 1/3 of his crops to the Lord. Before tending to his own farming and livelihood, harvesting crops and anything else that needed done, fixing fences, typically was required to work his Lord's land 1-2 days a week, who was not permitted to leave his Lord's land, the serf.

Related: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/peasant.html

TYPES OF PAYMENT / CURRENCY

. . . But for those occasions when there was a trading of ka-ching! Etc, with trade and barter being much more common - trading work for animals or food, at least not much of one, rarely a coin, for peasants, the "coin of the realm" was.

But were fairly uncommon, existed, such as Angels or Sovereigns, however, coins that were worth a Pound. Useful for accounting and record-keeping, no coin or other physical item (other than an actual Tower pound of silver) called a "Pound" - it was simply a convenient hypothetical unit of bulk currency, there was originally. Was the standard currency base), not gold, silver, including the Middle Ages, pound - based on the now-very-nonstandard Tower Pound (350 grams) of sterling silver (in most ancient times and cultures.

Or one-quarter of a pound, represented about five silver shillings, some of which were silver but may also have been composed of gold, crowns, crown - Common only among nobles and royalty.

Probably unwieldly coins, we can generally say that a silver shilling weighed just a little less than 19 grams - fairly large, although some medieval weights were figured differently. So the division was more one of weight and substance than intentional assignation, you got about 20s to the Pound, one of which is thought to have represented the value of one cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere), shilling - when the above Pound of silver was carved up to create individual coins (silver shillings.

Groat - Representing and likely physically composed of about four pence worth or silver

With each penny weighing just slightly under 1.6 grams, this is more a measurement of weight than of intentional monetary value, which were much smaller and thinner than the shillings - a shilling was worth 12 pence because you would get 12 pence if you carved up one silver shilling - again, into 12 silver pence (pennies), literally, each shilling could be broken down, pence - Following the Age of Antiquity's Greek and Roman and other currency systems' divisions for smaller units of currency.

Was never common but did see use from time to time, like the Farthing below, the Ha'Penny, ha'Penny - Valued at 1/2 of one pence.

This is about the most miniscule subdivision of currency ever needed and a lot of people tend to forego using such a small unit of currency. Cut into four equal pieces - not very practical to carry around but it let you work in increments smaller than one penny, the Farthing was usually an actual silver penny, rather than an official coin. With four Farthings equaling one penny, the Farthing was the further subdivision of the penny, farthing - Infrequently used.

So we see that 1 pound = 4 crowns = 20 shillings = 240 pence

I will focus on this 1p/day menial labor rule, since it is the lowest common denominator. Etc, burger-flipper/store clerk, it would seem to me that a typical peasant who made about three silver pennies per day would be like a modern professional - with people who made 1 penny being like a "wage slave", according to a good number of articles and resources on the internet.

Etc, which may or may not be adjusted for taxes, typical day wages are about $48.00 USD if you go with approximately $6.00/hour minimum wage, and for us in modern times, this would make that single penny his day's wages.

And most minimum wage actually now being closer to $7.00+ per hour, $48.00 per day is probably about as low as you go without getting into part-time and waiters/waitresses whose wages are non-standard.

Some more, i think the poorest of most of the *free* peasants probably made about a penny a day, i have seen other more professional and thorough research which indicates most peasants were lucky to make half a silver a day (about 5 pence) but for the sake of argument and a nice even number. 1 pence = $48.00 if you want to keep it really simple, if you base your criteria solely on daily wage, so as you can see.

Even say $50.00 to even it off, we have a fantasy/medieval penny basically being worth a modern (2009) USD total of about $48.00, going on the above assumption that an entry-level unskilled laborer made a penny a day.

This means an unskilled laborer peasant would likely earn still less than a shilling for two weeks of work. So ($50 x 12 = $524.00) one shilling would be worth $524.00 USD, it takes 12 pence to make a shilling.

And return to our basic assumption and change the average daily wage from one penny to one shilling, so let us stop here with this amount, this seems a bit much. Would have been worth about $12.50, being simply a penny cut into fourths, a farthing.

So let's take the full combination of the "liquid" payment as well as the abstracts and call it 1 silver shilling per day payment for an unskilled laborer. As a full belly and a roof overhead would be worth far more than one shiny penny, which could obviously not have been the case for the once penny wage, amenities), clothing, but potentially room and board (food, include not just the coin itself for the work, in this 1s/day rule, let us.

Let us now instead make the silver shilling worth $48.00 USD.

Making each farthing worth $1.00 USD, which would also nicely emulate the farthing, a penny (a 12th of a silver shilling) would have been worth about ($48 / 12 = 4) $4.00 USD.

000.00 USD, round down to $950 or up to an even $1, without too much trouble, which you could, the 20 silver shillings that make up a pound would equate to (20�48=960) $960.00 USD, going up to the pound or crown.

And are pretty common too, while pence are next up as more or less the $4.00/$5.00 bill, costs at least that much, especially lesser items, and nearly everything of significance in any historical or roleplaying game economy, farthings would be your dollar bill, obviously.

We would divide our initial figurings by 3 ($48/3=16) to get a modern-day equivalent worth of $16.00 per penny. Suppose in between these extremes is the person who made 3 pence per day, lastly?

400 each, 600 and one tower pound sterling $6, crowns worth $1, shillings worth ($16x20=320) $320.00, this would make Farthings worth ($16/4=4) $4.00 USD each.

Your mileage may vary, essentially, and whether or not you figure in intangibles - as in most other things in life, medium or high average wage and pay scale, whether you use a low, it will depend on what you determine as the baseline for your own situation, really. So which is correct for your purposes?