Money of the Faroe Islands in the Middle Ages
The monetary system of the Faroe Islands in the Middle Ages essentially corresponded to that in Norway and Denmark (see also the Danish monetary history ), with local peculiarities.
Although it partly worked with the same units as the Faroese agricultural yield measure Markatal , the relationships between the units were different. Nor did one mark of money reflect the equivalent of one mark of land.
prehistory
The Faroe Islands saga , which tells of the Viking Age in the Faroe Islands , does not mention the use of coins in the Faroe Islands. When the Norwegian king tried to collect tribute from the Faroe Islands, the chiefs paid with silver (of varying quality). This precious metal does not occur in the Faroe Islands, so it was imported.
The first proven coins in the Faroe Islands come from the coin find of Sandur on the island of Sandoy , which was estimated to have been buried between 1070 and 1080, i.e. at the beginning of the Early Middle Ages after the end of the Viking Age on the archipelago.
Coin units
The first reliable source that testifies to the use of money in the Faroe Islands is the sheep letter of 1298 . It was issued at a time when Norwegian law (Gulatingslog) was already in force in the Faroe Islands.
Initially there were the following coin units:
Later came:
It was calculated as follows:
- 1 mark = 2 guilders and 8 shillings = 8 ore = 48 shillings = 240 pfennigs
- 1 guilder = 20 shillings = 3 ore and 2 shillings = 100 pfennigs
- 1 ore = 6 shillings = 30 pfennigs
- 1 schilling = 5 pfennigs
Denomination
The Faroese shilling could only be found there. Mark, guilder and ore were silver coins . Another silver coin was the Örtug , which corresponded to 1/3 Öre or 2 shillings. But there was also a quarter gulden (= 5 shillings) as a copper coin . And as further sub-units of the pfennig there were change of 1/2 and 1/4 pfennig.
| coin | corresponds | in pennies |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 pfennig | 0.25 | |
| 1/2 pfennig | 0.5 | |
| penny | 1 | |
| Shilling | 5 | |
| Ortug | 2 shillings | 10 |
| 1/4 guilder | 5 shillings | 25th |
| Ore | 3 places, or 6 shillings | 30th |
| gulden | 20 shillings | 100 |
| mark | 8 ore | 240 or 2.40 guilders |
Equivalent
Today it is assumed that in Norway a distinction was made between one mark of silver and one mark of money (there is a certain confusion of terms in sheep letters). One mark of silver was equivalent to 215.8 grams of pure silver, one mark of money about a third of that, or about 70 grams.
At the time of the sheep letter (end of the 13th century ), one mark of money had the following value in the Faroe Islands:
- 1 cow ( kúgildi means cow money)
- 6 sheep (under certain circumstances eight. 1 sheep mark is mentioned in the sheep letter and corresponds to 1/6 mark)
- 54 kilograms of butter (3 leypur à 18 kg)
- 120 cubits of woolen fabric (one cubit of woolen fabric ( vaðmála ) corresponds to a cloth of 90 * 60 cm, or: 3 * 2 feet, where 2 feet are one cubit)
Vaðmála
120 yards of woolen fabric was referred to in the Faroese language as hundrað vaðmála , where hundrað did not mean one hundred , but stórhundrað ("big hundred"), which corresponds to 120. This unit was used until well into the 20th century. A yard of wool was a common currency in the Faroe Islands. In an ordinance from the second half of the 14th century on the expense allowances for members of the Løgtings, it is stipulated that this amounts to between 5 and 20 vaðmála (yards of woolen fabric) depending on the route to Tinganes .
The table above shows that you could buy a yard of woolen fabric for 2 pfennigs. The members of parliament received an expense allowance of 10 to 40 pfennigs per meeting for their travel expenses.
This Natural currency is already in the Faroese mentioned: After the dispute between Einar and Eldjarn 969 of Gode promised Havgrímur the big farmers Tróndur í Gøtu 200 vaðmála and whose uncle Svínoyar-Bjarni even 300 to each autumn for life, for being 970 at the murder of Brestir and Beinir attended. Added to this were 2 or 3 kúgildi (cow money) each spring.
Today's equivalent
Taking the then and now price of butter as a basis, an idealized (but not unrealistic) butter price of 1.11 euros per 250 grams results in a kilo price of 4.44 euros. 54 kilograms of butter (one mark of money , see above) would then correspond to 240 euros. This would result in the following "course" of the coins:
- 1 mark = 240 euros
- 1 guilder = 100 euros
- 1 ore = 30 euros
- 1/4 guilder = 25 euros
- 1 place = 10 euros
- 1 shilling = 5 euros
- 1 pfennig = 1 euro
- 1/2 pfennig = 50 cents
- 1/4 pfennig = 25 cents
How useful this hypothetical conversion table is can be seen from the following examples:
Traveling expenses
A Løgtings delegate from Suðuroy would have received an allowance of 40 pfennigs for his journey to Tórshavn in the 14th century. For this he had to travel more than 30 nautical miles in an open rowboat and release men from his village to take him there. Today a Løgtings MP still has to travel by water and pays around 20 euros for the ferry there and back. According to the table above, he would have received 40 euros at that time. If he were to take his car with him on today's ferry, he would not be able to get by with 40 euros (that costs over 50 euros). But if, for example, he were to leave the car behind and take a constituency employee, spouse or guest to the parliamentary session, the amount would be exactly sufficient. The lower expense allowances for other locations were similar.
board and lodging
The sheep letter regulated what a farmer could ask of a guest who spent the winter with him and stayed that way from autumn to spring. There were three case studies there:
- The guest receives the same food as the farmer and eats with him: 3 marks (= "720 euros")
- The guest also receives beer on public holidays and fasting days: 4 marks (= "960 euros")
- The guest also gets beer every day: 6 marks (= "1440 euros")
With a stay of 150 days, according to the above hypothesis, we would have a daily rate of around 5–10 euros, which would have had to be paid to the farm household (at that time it was large families plus servants). 5 euros would be the daily beer consumption of the guest.
Today the Faroese crown is used in the Faroe Islands , which corresponds 1: 1 to the Danish crown ( rule of thumb : 100 krónur = 13.50 € - 100 € = 750 krónur).
literature
- GVC Young: From the Vikings to the Reformation. A Chronicle of the Faroe Islands up to 1538 . Shearwater Press, Douglas - Isle of Man 1979, ISBN 0-904980-20-0 .
- GVC Young: Færøerne. Fra vikingetiden til reformations . Rosenkilde og Bakker, Copenhagen 1982, ISBN 87-423-0371-0 , (Danish translation, basis of this article).
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Art. 9 Kongsbók and Art. 13 Lundabók. The information there are vaðmála and here accordingly converted into mark .