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Ancient Finances

Exploring finances in times of the Viking Age, Roman Empire, and Alexander the Great.

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Tag: prices

Viking Era

One usuable indicator of the value of a Viking sword. How many weapons you could buy today for that price?

Posted on October 9, 2019October 9, 2019

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 […]

Viking Era

Can’t make sense of one indicator of price of sword during Viking Age

Posted on October 7, 2019February 8, 2021

I’ve been wondering about the price of a sword during the Viking Era. Tripped across two indicators on the same day. One was useful, the following was a dead end. I’m not able to make sense of it. Price of a sword and scabbard was set at 7 solidi according to the Lex Rubuaria codification […]

Viking Era

Recap of payments made to Viking raiders, called Danegeld.

Posted on October 3, 2019October 3, 2019

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 […]

Viking Era

Coining money in Viking Age and more details on found hoards

Posted on September 30, 2019October 14, 2019

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 […]

Roman Empire

Galea – helmet worn by Roman Legionnaires.

Posted on September 21, 2019January 31, 2020

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. […]

Other eras

Inflation factors during the Civil War and an indication of relative wages in the 1860s.

Posted on January 19, 2019January 20, 2019

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 […]

comparison data

Cost and time to cross the Atlantic has dropped by more than 90% in the last 500 years.

Posted on October 1, 2018

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 […]

Roman Empire

Roman legionnaire’s pay over time. Increases are an indication of debasement of currency.

Posted on March 2, 2018February 26, 2018

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 […]

Viking Era

Estimate of price of silver and gold in Viking Age

Posted on December 22, 2017December 22, 2017

To give you a rough picture of relative values during the Viking Age, the items in each of the above photos would have approximately equal value: 8 ounces of silver = 1 ounce of gold = 4 cows = 24 sheep This post calculates my estimate of the price of gold and silver during the […]

Viking Era

Units of measure and relative value in the Viking Age

Posted on December 4, 2017

Before trying to quantify some sort of dollar value for items during the Viking era, let’s look at some relative values. My approach will be to find a way of comparing the prices of items during the Viking Age in relation to each other. Value of cows or sheep today will be added into those […]

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American Civil War (6) coins (15) comparing wages/prices across time (25) construction/time/cost (14) economic development (2) hoards (9) money (21) Old Testament (4) population (3) prices (22) ships (17) travel cost/time (3) Ulvog farm (15) wages/compensation (19) weaponry (16) weights (3)
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