Thanks to Andrew and Rosemary for allowing me to calculate how much a pint
of beer should have cost...they must have swum in the stuff

I am not sure if this is on topic or not...still it may help a GM or
cash-flow challenged adventurer (IE wondering how to spend all this loot)...

a few years ago, I read with alarm that the good duckies (er, duchies)  that
now make up the Western Kingdom, were able to mobilise over 1% of their
populace to fight a war of aggression. At the time I thought this a bit
much, and also reduced what influence a guild party could have on the
outcome of a battle.

the book A Distant Mirror states:

in 1345 [the English] Parliament authorised the King to require all
landowners to serve in person or supply a substitute or a monetary
equivalent. A man with 5 pounds income from land or rents was to supply an
archer, a 10 pound income supplied a mounted spearman, 20 pounds supplied
two of these, income over 25 pounds supplied a man-at-arms, meaning usualy a
squire or knight. Towns and shires were required to raise a given number of
archers...

the frenchies responded by issuing an arriere-ban. Apart from the Knights
and Squires of noble estate, the non-noble contingents were furnished by
towns and districts according to teh number of heaths and relative
prosperity. In some regions every 100 hearths wre obligated to pay for one
soldier for one year. In poorer districts the obligation might be one
soldier for every 200 or 300 hearths. The number of effectives raised at
this rate was not large: in 1337, for example, Rouen supplied 200 men,
Narbonne 150 crossbowmen, Nimes 95 men-at-arms...Each levy from town,
district, fief, or area of special status had to be negotiated separately at
a different rate, for a different duration, and on teh basis of different
rights and privileges, causing endless disputes in the process.

frenchy folk received pay (even knights etc):
knight banneret    20 sous per day
Knight batcherlor    10 sous per day
mounted squire        6 or 7 sous per day

The number of levies might be from less than 0.1 up to 0.5 percent of the
population.

The english requirement was, therefore quite reasonable (from an
adventurer's point of view):
income of over        equip and provide the following
8000 sp per year = one man-at-arms for a year
6400 sp per year = two mounted spearmen
3200 sp per year = one mounted spearman
1920 sp per year = one archer

cheers, Ian



----- Original Message -----
From: <AndrewW@datacom.co.nz>
To: <dq@dq.sf.org.nz>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 October 2002 09:11
Subject: Re: [dq] currency conversion


> A pound of "pure" silver is supposed to be 320 pennyweight. Given that a
> guinea is 252sp, and thus a pound is 240sp, one assumes that Seagate
silver
> pennies are nominally held to be 75% as pure as sterling silver. 320sp =
240
> british pence = 1 pound sterling.
>
>
> Adam Smith says : "The gold coin of France, making an allowance for the
> remedy of the mint, contains twenty one carats and three-fourths of fine
> gold, and two carats one fourth of alloy. The mark of standard gold (eight
> Paris ounces) is coined into thirty Louis d'ors of twenty-four livres
each,
> or into seven hundred and twenty livres."
> Assuming the Seagate & Paris ounces are identical, a pound of gold = 1440
> livres, thus 3 livres = 8 sp; 90 livres = 1 pound sterling.
>
> This is all from a bullion perspective. The other approach would be to
price
> some items in pounds & sp, and find a rough conversion rate.
>
>
> Andrew
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dawnhaven@xtra.co.nz [mailto:dawnhaven@xtra.co.nz]
> Sent: Tuesday, 29 October 2002 8:22 a.m.
> To: dq@dq.sf.org.nz
> Subject: [dq] currency conversion
>
>
> Does anyone know, or care, or have an opinion on what would be a useful
> conversion between English pounds stirling (IE a pound of stirling silver
> (95% pure) and Seagate silver pennies?
>
> Or between French livres/sous?
>
> cheers, Ian
>
>  - Of course I could just assume that the missing 5% of the stirling can
be
> found in the seagate pennies.
>
>
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>


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