February 3, 2018February 3, 2018Viking Era One frame of reference for comparing time to construct large projects With about 40,000 hours of labor, you could build this in around 900 A.D. …. ..or with about 55,000 hours of labor, […]
January 31, 2018Alexander the Great, comparison of living standards, Roman Empire, Viking Era Abundance of food today compared with routine scarcity of food earlier than 150 years ago. For most of history, one of the main challenges was getting enough food to eat. Keeping your family alive through the winter […]
December 22, 2017December 22, 2017Viking Era Estimate of price of silver and gold in Viking Age To give you a rough picture of relative values during the Viking Age, the items in each of the above photos would […]
December 8, 2017comparison of living standards Increase of income per person over last 200 years (Article cross-posted from Outrun Change because it shows the radical change in per capita income over the last 200 years, which in […]
October 24, 2017Other eras Price tag for the first New Testament printed in vernacular expressed in terms of the cost of a butchered hog I found an interesting way to convert the price of a New Testament bible in 1522 to current dollars. How does this […]
September 21, 2017December 22, 2017comparison data, Viking Era What is a cow worth today? That provides a framework for valuation in ancient times. Comparing prices and values over a long period of time is tough to do. For example, how can we compare the cost […]
June 2, 2017June 15, 2017Alexander the Great, comparison data Total wealth held by American households as reference point for ancient finances Here is another point of reference I’ll use for my discussion of ancient finances. The Wall Street Journal reported on 6/7/16: Americans’ […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Alexander the Great, comparison data Stock market capitalization as reference point for ancient finances I am building some reference points for my ongoing learning about ancient finances. (If you couldn’t tell, I’m have a lot of […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Alexander the Great Compensation for skilled construction worker The description of how much a drachma or Athenian Talent is worth is best considered by converting it to how many days labor […]
June 1, 2017January 1, 2018Alexander the Great, comparison data So, how can we compare today’s wages with 100 years or 2,300 years ago? The following numbers are based on purchasing power parity, which is a tool economists use to compare countries across currencies and across […]