Prices in the Middle Ages

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The prices of goods and services in the Middle Ages are very broad and only passed down sporadically. A high number of coins and payment units (see: Coin # The Middle Ages ) make their categorization even more difficult.

Problem

The Franks were the over the long period Middle Ages across a lot of different Münzformen and values shaped, used and also disappeared. Weights, measures, coins and prices differed from country to country, from region to region and from city to city, and a traveler or a nationally active merchant had to constantly convert the national currencies. In addition, prices and wages were subject to fluctuations, which are based on production difficulties in agriculture due to weather and other influences or on a political basis. Much more than today, medieval man was subject to the rhythm of the seasons and the harvest periods. By means of various price regulation measures, the authorities exerted influence mainly in the city, but also in some places in the country, in order to regulate prices according to the circumstances. This also happened with regard to wages, which are listed as examples for better comparability of monetary value and purchasing power, but are also to be regarded as prices for services. In addition, an exemplary processing of the individual prices is necessary to better illustrate the situation.

Development in the 12th to 16th century

12th Century

Due to poor harvest conditions in 1150 and 1151, the price of grain rose massively. In Saxony , Flanders , in the Upper Rhine region and from Lorraine and neighboring parts of France and from southern Germany, reports can be found that suggest a famine of supraregional proportions. A price of 60 solidi for a Malter Weizen is recorded, which is downright priceless. A percentage increase cannot be ascertained due to the lack of a normal basis, but from similar situations later it can be seen that a price increase of 400 - 500% was nothing unusual.

13th Century

There was a very different supply situation between town and country, which also had an impact on prices. City rents were sometimes due annually, but occasionally also monthly, in contrast to the rent paid by farmers once a year. In the city, bread was bought and sold as a loaf and therefore more frequently, while farmers bought or sold their grain by bushels and therefore only needed it once a year. In addition, townspeople bought meat by the pound, farmers bought whole animals for slaughter. The city dweller therefore used his money in small amounts throughout the year, the rural dweller less often, but in larger amounts.
In the context of drought and floods, the Colmar Chronicle explicitly reported grain and flour prices in 1293 because there was a bottleneck in the flour supply, despite sufficient grain stocks. Drought and the resulting lack of water paralyzed the water mills that were responsible for flour production. This was followed by a rise in the price of bread, which in particular caused the poorer part of the population to help themselves by making flour themselves with the help of mortars or spice mills.
In 1256, Duke Heinrich von Niederbayern issued a market and trade regulation in Landshut for a year , which, in addition to fines in the event of a violation, also set the prices of various goods. It is stated there that 2½ pounds of ox meat and all other meat may cost 1 denarius , but goat meat may cost 1 denarius for every 3 pounds. A price of 1 denarius was fixed for 2 ordinary, baked loaves of bread. Likewise, a bucket of Roman wine could not be sold for more than 5 shillings , while strangers paid ½ pfennig and 10 denarii for the same amount . The best Franconian wine had a price of 75 denarii, the more mediocre wine cost 55 denarii. In addition, shoemakers should produce soles and heels at a price of 1 denarius, heels for 1 obolus.

14th Century

Urban wages and prices rose in this century and there was increased migration from rural areas to urban areas where there was a shortage of labor. The increased production of food by the farmers for the urban population led to a fall in prices and, as a result, to rural exodus.
As part of the establishment of a mint association by the electors of Cologne , Mainz and Trier as well as the Count Palatine of the Rhine , the Rhenish guilder was minted, which developed into a kind of key currency in the empire.
Before the conversion to the Rhenish Gulden, the following currency system applied to Cologne around 1300:

  • 1 mark = 16 shillings = 48 Witten = 96 Blaffert = 192 pfennigs

Around this time, a pound of butter cost 24 pfennigs in the city, as did 1 pound of rice, salmon or carp. 100 eggs had the equivalent of 132 pfennigs (= 11 schillings), 100 apples, on the other hand, only cost 72 pfennigs (= 6 schillings). 84 pfennigs (= 7 shillings) was the price for 1 pair of shoes.

In Hamburg and Lübeck, 1 pound of butter can be bought for 4 pfennigs, 100 kg of wheat or 100 kg of rye cost 6 shillings, while 100 kg of oats only cost 4 shillings. 1 pair of shoes was worth 3 shillings, while a pair of boots with the equivalent of 11 shillings was far more expensive. The economic horse, which brought the dealer 8 marks, can certainly be described as a luxury good. An ox, on the other hand, cost 4 marks and a pig weighing approx. 25 kg 15 shillings.

In Bamberg, however, the conversion was carried out as follows:

  • 1 guilder = 20 shillings = 120 pfennigs = 240 hellers

For example, among carpenters, stonemasons, roofers and bricklayers, the daily wage for a master craftsman for 1328 was 22 piers (summer) or 18 piers (winter). A journeyman, on the other hand, earns 16 Heller in summer and 14 Heller in winter. A handyman is paid with 10 Hellern in summer and 8 Hellern in winter. In addition, a builder could pay a master craftsman 2 and the other craftsmen below the master class 1 Heller bathing fee.

Mecklenburg had a similar conversion. For 1361 the daily wage for a carpenter is 1 shilling, in 1379 the daily wage for a carpenter is 1 shilling and 1 pfennig. In 1304, a pound of butter was priced at 3 pfennigs (= 6 hellers), 15 eggs at 1 pfennig (= 2 hellers). In 1325 1 coat cost 16 pfennigs (= 32 hellers) and in 1379 1 pound of pepper cost 6 shillings (= 1440 hellers).

Around 1367, peak prices were paid for grain in Frankfurt am Main , England and Antwerp . This was mainly due to the bad weather in the summer of 1366, which had a negative impact on the harvest and thus also the amount of grain to be sold. For Lübeck a price of 5 or even 6 shillings is known for a bushel of rye. In 1367 the harvest was more plentiful, so that now prices plummeted. In 1368 there was a grain shortage in Cologne, while in Strasbourg in the middle of the year the price of rye fell from 20 shillings to 7 after 4 days. In Frankfurt am Main prices rose again continuously until 1370 before they fell sharply until 1373.
Around 1380 a bricklayer there earned 40 hellers (summer) or 32 hellers (winter) a day. A henchman, on the other hand, brought it to 22 Heller in summer and 18 Heller in winter. Independent of the season, councilors were rewarded for a council meeting. You received 18 hellers. The day trip of a councilor was compensated with 60 hellers. 1 bread, on the other hand, was available for 1 - 2 hellers, 1 fish also cost 1 heller. 1 pound of butter was worth 2 pounds, 1 pound of beef was worth 4 pints. In comparison, a whole cattle cost 2 guilders, a horse even 10 guilders. In addition to clothing and food, the price for a master craftsman's certificate is also known, which was 2 guilders around 1380. In addition, it has been handed down that a building plot with a demolished house could cost 172 guilders. Ulman Stromer , Nuremberg merchant and first German paper manufacturer north of the Alps, reports a price of 1825 guilders for a house on the market square. Buildings in this residential area were considered the most expensive and prestigious in the city at that time. He had to pay 16 Heller brokerage fees for the brokerage.
Craftsmen and servants were often of their wages in coin form and payment in kind . For the period around 1390 in Cologne, the daily wage for a master craftsman was 8 shillings (= 96 pfennigs), but this is only 48 pfennigs with food. Likewise, a journeyman receives 5 schillings (= 60 pfennigs) a day, but only 28 pfennigs with food. An apprentice, on the other hand, earned 3 shillings (= 36 pfennigs) and received no share of food.
To compare wages with goods of daily life, the following is known for the same period:
1 pound of rice or honey, but also 1 pound of mutton was received at a price of 32 pfennigs. By comparison, 1 pound of beef was available for 1 shilling. 1 carp, on the other hand, cost 8 shillings, as well as 87 eggs. One pound of pepper was worth 24 shillings, and one pound of saffron was worth 5 guilders. For clothing one could buy 1 pair of shoes or a smock at a price of 8 shillings. 1 pair of pants cost 28 shillings. From the year 1355 it is known from the goldsmith Bonaccorso de Vanni from Tuscany that, in addition to jeweled crucifixes and an image of the Virgin Mary with a crown, he also offered a jeweled bishop's hat, which had a price of 280 florins . That represented ten years 'wages for a weaver and at least one and a half years' wages for a knight .

15th century

The average grain prices, which have been handed down for the years 1403 to 1485, show that prices did not rise inexorably in this century, but changed up or down depending on the weather, depending on the harvest result and the economic situation. The height of the wheat price in 1433 and the drop in the price of wheat and oats in 1441 are particularly striking.

year rye wheat oats barley
1403 20.78 -
1408 - 27.20 -
1433 - 40.80 - -
1435 17.37 20.40 12.01 17.74
1441 - 9.07 7.01 -
1468 14.65 20.40 18.01 13.30
1484 21.67 27.20 27.02 -
1485 14.45 23.80 21.02 -
Prices in g of fine silver

From the middle of the 15th century onwards, an average of 60-80 guilders can be assumed as income for a multi-person household. A regular income of 50 guilders was above the average for an employed small craftsman, 30 guilders were considered sufficient. Income over 100 guilders was an absolute exception, while an income up to this amount was considered a top wage. Around 1405, when building the town hall in Bremen, a bricklayer or carpenter earned 12–15 (swarms), a worker 5-6 swarms and a master 3–4 grotes . In Hamburg and Lübeck, on the other hand, the wages of a building craftsman in 1412 were 16 pfennigs, 160 even twice as much. Around 1480 the monthly income of a day laborer was enough for 1 pair of shoes, 1 cubit of canvas and 1 work jacket. He could afford 2.5 liters of rye, 2 pounds of veal and 1 large pot of milk from his monthly wages.

The following values ​​are known for Frankfurt am Main for the year 1425:

  • A carpenter earned 45 Heller in summer and 36 Heller in winter.
  • A bricklayer received 40 Heller in summer and 32 Heller in winter.
  • A stove maker or thatched roofer received 36 Heller in summer and 27 Heller in winter.
  • A worker in the vineyard had to be satisfied with 10-14 Hellern.

For comparison, the price of 1 bread should be given, which in 1425 was 2 Hellern. 1 fish cost, also as around 1380, 1 heller and 1 pound of butter was 2 hellers. 1 pound of beef was 4 porkers, 1 beef, on the other hand, cost twice as much with 4 guilders and a horse between 20 and 24 guilders.

Konrad von Weinsberg reports that he sent a bailiff accompanied by a butcher to buy cattle. The costs for the accommodation and the feed of the horse were included in the price at that time, the costs for horses in tour groups tended to amount to around a third of the total costs. The invoice notes of the clerk Konrad Kümpf report:

“What cattle I bought in Nördlingen and Stuttgart: 92 guilders for 31 cattle in Nördlingen. I and the horse ate 3 ½ guilders and 7 Bohemian groschen there and back for eight days; for four days we lay quietly in Nördlingen. 15 Bohemian groschen at customs in Nördlingen, in Ehingen, in Ellwangen, in Hall. 1 gulden 1 Czech groschen for the butcher and a servant who helped me to buy and drive the cattle. [To Stuttgart ...] 77 ½ Gulden 1 place for 22 bulls [...] 11 Schilling 3 pfennigs I, the butcher, my horse eats there and back. "

The conversion around 1450 in Frankfurt is as follows:

1 guilder = 24 Schilling Heller = 216 Heller
1 English = 6 Heller

In 1450, the Frankfurt council stipulated that the daily wages and the exact times of summer and winter should be paid according to their work performance. Those who have earned their full wages should receive it, those who do less should also be paid with less. In addition, it was determined that carpenters and slate roofers should receive 5 Schilling Heller per day during the summer without food, or 3 ½ Schilling Heller including a morning soup, as well as lunch and a snack. Dinner was not included. During the winter, at least 4 Schilling Heller per day should be paid without food, or 3 Schilling Heller with the same food as in summer. Also listed is the payment of the vineyard workers, which should be 18 Heller from February to May, 20 Heller from May to September and 14 Heller from September to February. They shouldn't be fed. Women and girls are listed explicitly. For work such as carrying manure, breaking branches or picking vines, you receive 10 Heller from February to May, 12 Heller from May to September and 10 Heller again from September to February and no food.
Food prices had not shifted significantly. So 1 bread continued to cost between 1 and 2 hellers and 1 pound of beef 4 hellers. 1 pound of butter, on the other hand, was 8-10 lighters. 1 eighth of wheat (Frankfurt eighth = 114.74 liters) was priced at 149 hellers and 1 eighth of rye cost 130 hellers. You could buy 1 pair of shoes with 90 Hellern. The price of 1 measure of wine (Frankfurt gift measure = 1.59 liters) was 10 ½ Hellern.

By shifting the growing areas to the north in the 14th and 15th centuries, wine was grown, for example, in Kassel , Itzehoe , Bad Wildungen , Braunschweig or on Marburger Schlossberg. The very poor quality of these wines meant that they were also called Knechtsweine, because this was the group of those who should drink the acidic products. In Upper German cities, a per capita consumption of 1.3 liters of wine per day can be documented for the 15th century. Before the spread of beer consumption, this value can certainly be generalized. The listing of house rents and house costs around 1450 can be broken down according to income or occupational group. The house rent of a bricklayer was 1.6 guilders a year, while a brewer paid 4 guilders a year. A goldsmith had to pay a rent of 10 guilders a year. The price for a simple small house was 20 to 30 guilders, a craftsman's house could be much more expensive at 40 to 100 guilders and the price for a patrician house was around 800 guilders. The average daily wages of building craftsmen in Nuremberg for the years 1445, 1464 and 1484 and the purchasing power calculated from this, broken down by Pies, is as follows:

year Average daily wage Price of 1 Simmer grain Working days for 1 simmer grain Price of 100 measure of wine Working days for 100 liters of wine Price of 100 pounds of meat Working days for 100 pounds of meat
1454 18.24 d 510 d 28.00 541 d 29.50 216 d 11.84
1464 18.60 d 285 d 15.30 700 d 37.60 228 d 12.30
1484 22.60 d 552 d 24.40 842 d 37.20 320 d 14.20
1 Simmer = 318 l = 231 kg of rye, 1 measure = 1.069 L, 1 pound = 475 to 480 g

16th Century

In the 16th century there was a sharp increase in prices, especially grain prices. The most important staple food became more expensive, albeit with regional differences. This is u. a. can be attributed to locally different crop failures and the resulting high transport costs to maintain supplies for the population. There was also an increase in the prices of services, which were also subject to regional fluctuations. However, this did not compensate for the increase in the cost of living.

Authoritative price regulation

In the Capitulare Missorum of Nijmegen of March 806 and 813 in Châlons the purchase of wine or grain after bad harvests for the purpose of reselling at higher prices is banned and referred to as "turpe lucrum". Maximum prices are prescribed to the royal vassal , which should be observed when selling excess earnings. 808 is followed by a rate for furs and coats of a better and simpler kind.

The Council of Paris in 829 opposed the arbitrary price regulations of bishops and counts and the Edictum Pistense of Charles the Bald of 864 tried to introduce the price regulation, which already existed as a municipal institution, by the Reich and to make it possible for the cities to set prices facilitate. This was also taken up by Friedrich Barbarossa in 1152 in the Reichslandfrieden , who gave all counts the order to determine the price of grain annually for each province according to the times. The effectiveness of this arrangement is, however, to be judged rather low due to the lack of repetitions by Friedrich I himself or his successors, as well as due to the lack of surveillance officers.

Several price regulations are known between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century, for example in Augsburg before 1104, in Freiburg i. Breisgau towards the end of the 12th century, before 1164 in Schwindratsheim and Hochfelden in Alsace, 1164 in Hagenau and probably no later than 1105 in Halberstadt and 1189 in Hamburg. Also in the 12th century a. a. in Nuremberg, Munich and Regensburg.

In addition to the market and trade regulation 1256 in Landshut, already mentioned above, Basel is known from the same year that the rights of the governor , the bread master and the baker are stipulated that every baker who sells his bread at a price other than the usual price wants to sell, must first obtain the permission of the bishop and the vicarage.
On June 28, 1258, as part of the so-called "great arbitration" between the archbishop and the city of Cologne, a ban was imposed on the guilds to fix the price of goods used in their trade when buying and selling. The reason given is that the behavior of the guilds would increase purchase prices, but depress sales prices. It can therefore be concluded from this that the guilds pursued their own pricing policy in order to improve their economic situation. Even after the prohibition of 1258, there are isolated testimonies of this practice. For example, the garment tailors in Cologne, who formed the most distinguished and powerful guild in the city, set 1270 minimum wages for cloth tailors . This served to damage the woolen weavers to whom the cloth weavers worked and who competed with the dressmakers in the wholesale trade. The rise in the price of Cologne cloth due to the minimum wage also increased the demand for foreign cloth, for which only the dressmakers had the right to sell.

The already mentioned regulation of daily wages in 1450 by the Frankfurt Council represented a binding determination of the wages to be paid, which were based on the prices of essential goods. It can be seen that the clients still have room for maneuver, depending on the work performance of the craftsmen, but the fixed minimum wage was an important new benchmark.

Market surveillance and price regulation was focused on the food trade, indicating the focus of the political authorities on the situation of the working population. The composition of the council, to which the wishes and demands of consumers were addressed, was important for urban pricing policy. According to the medieval city constitution, the will of the majority in the council was responsible for the entire city policy. As already mentioned, there were different rules for individual cities, which were determined by the ordinances of the councils. Depending on the influence of the guilds of the most diverse branches of the market, a special tendency of the arrangements can be recognized in places.

In Ulm there was unrestricted guild compulsory for the butchers and not under pressure from outside competition, the competition was also limited on the basis of a guild ordinance, according to which every butcher should not slaughter any other type of cattle until the following Thursday than he was on the last Saturday Sale. As a result of this measure, consumers complained to the Council, which had initially approved this measure, about a shortage of meat. In 1416 the council felt compelled to give in and to issue an ordinance, according to which every butcher can slaughter and sell any kind of meat at any time. This was followed by a battle among butchers to amend the law, which in 1489 led to a revision with a subsequent renewed shortage and price increase intended by the butchers. In 1490 the council introduced maximum price taxes in order to curb the rise in prices, which butchers fought sharply in the following years and which were often exceeded. The apparent accumulation of official price regulations allows the conclusion that usury and exploitation of consumers was a crime that had to be stopped by laws and regulations. In addition, in some cities a restriction of the guild influence was certainly decisive for various regulations. But economic emergencies such as food shortages due to weather conditions or delivery difficulties also led to an intervention in the price situation.

literature

  • Wilhelm Abel : Structures and crises of the late medieval economy . Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-437-50245-X .
  • Bernd Fuhrmann: With hard cash. Trade in the Middle Ages . Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-89678-379-0 .
  • Ursula Hauschild: Studies on wages and prices in Rostock in the late Middle Ages, (sources and representations on Hanseatic history) . Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-412-83173-5 .
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Henning : German economic and social history in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period: with tables, manual of the economic and social history of Germany, Vol. 1 . Paderborn 1991, ISBN 3-506-73861-5 .
  • Ernst Kelter: The official price regulation in the time of the medieval city economy . Jena 1935.
  • Wolfgang Metzger: Trade and handicrafts of the Middle Ages as reflected in book illumination . Graz 2002, ISBN 3-201-01781-7 .
  • Gisela Möncke (Ed.): Sources on the economic and social history of Central and Upper German cities in the late Middle Ages . Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 3-534-06875-0 .
  • Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, ISBN 978-3-930132-23-2 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Schmitz: Factors of the price formation for grain and wine in the period from 800 to 1350 . Stuttgart 1968, ISBN 978-3-8282-5068-0 .
  • Rolf Sprandel : The medieval payment system: according to Hanseatic-Nordic sources of the 13th - 15th centuries . Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-7772-7513-1 .
  • Peter Spufford: Trade, Power, and Wealth. Merchants in the Middle Ages . Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1893-5 .
  • Arnold Luschin von Ebengreuth : General minting and monetary history of the Middle Ages and modern times . Berlin 1926, ISBN 3-486-47224-0 (reprinted 1973 and 1976).
  • Michael North : Money and its History: From the Middle Ages to the Present . Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38072-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Schmitz: Factors of the price formation for grain and wine in the period from 800 to 1350. Stuttgart 1968, p. 17
  2. ↑ Ernst Kelter: The official price regulation in the time of the medieval city economy. Jena 1935, p. 17
  3. ↑ a b c Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 8
  4. ↑ a b c Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 9
  5. ^ Wilhelm Abel: Structures and Crises of the Late Medieval Economy , Stuttgart 1980S, p. 69
  6. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schmitz: Factors of the price formation for grain and wine in the period from 800 to 1350 , Stuttgart 1968, p. 70
  7. ↑ a b Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 11
  8. ↑ a b Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 12
  9. ↑ Peter Spufford: Commerce, Power and Wealth. Merchants in the Middle Ages , Darmstadt 2004. p. 89
  10. ↑ a b Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 13
  11. ^ Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 14
  12. ↑ a b Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 15
  13. ↑ Gisela Möncke (Ed.): Sources on the economic and social history of Central and Upper German cities in the late Middle Ages , Darmstadt 1982, pp. 349–351
  14. ↑ a b Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 16
  15. ↑ Bernd Fuhrmann: With hard cash. Trade in the Middle Ages , Darmstadt 2010, p. 26
  16. ↑ a b Eike Pies: Wages and Prices from 1300 to 2000 . Wuppertal 2008, p. 18