What was the price of a Viking sword at the time? How about expressing a price then in some unit of measure we can grasp today? I have looked on the ol’ net but haven’t found any good guesses. Previous post discussed one indicator that I couldn’t process. Hurstwic website describes one sword that had […]
Some day I plan to collate all the comments I’ve read on the amount of Danegeld and other money accumulated by various Viking raids. In The Vikings, Else Roesdahl provides details on payments to Viking raiders: France: 44,250 pounds gold and silver during 9th century – from context I think this is from the Frankish […]
Consider there was no secure way to store wealth in the time of the Vikings. There were no banks, no marketable securities, no way to establish reliable title to land. In essence, there was no store of value other than bullion or coins. So, if you had a huge amount of wealth beyond your livestock […]
With a shield held in front of you, the most valuable and most exposed area to be protected is your head. Helmets were in used during the entire Roman Era, as well as routinely used by their predecessors and opponents. Researchers have identified five major types of helmets, with large number of subtypes for each. […]
An insightful indicator of wages during the Civil War can be found in The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy, by William C. Davis. Book also has useful indicators of inflation through 1863. The northern economy was quite strong during the Civil War, with demand for skilled and unskilled workers in industry creating […]
Transatlantic travel time has dropped radically in the last 500 years. Time to transit the Atlantic has dropped about 99% and cost has dropped about 95% by my calculations. Let’s look at several data points for cost and time, then calculate one indicator of improved quality of life. (Article cross-posted from my other blog, Outrun […]
Pay for a legionnaire soldier in the Roman army increased substantially over time, from 225 denarii a year around the turn of the millenium to 600 denarri in the early 200s. The amount of silver in a denarii was also steadily reduced over that same time. That is called inflation, which as we know from other […]