5 ms·

This article is useless without 1) En explanation of what 1d actually is, seeing as the letter 'd' appears in most of the prices, but not in the key. Especial

This article is useless without 1) En explanation of what 1d actually is, seeing as the letter 'd' appears in most of the prices, but not in the key. Especially odd and udnerstanding prices is the whole point of the article. 2) A current day estimate in dollars of how much a shilling or a "d" - adjusted for inflation is actually worth. Am I missing something here?

sctb 9y ago
> This article is useless without > udnerstanding prices is the whole point of the article Says you! What can you learn from such an article? A list of prices of goods can give you something of a picture of life at the time, by considering the relative cost of things. How expensive was University? Consider it relative the cost of feeding oneself. How was wealth concentrated in population centers? Consider the difference in prices in London vs. elsewhere. You can ask the same sorts of questions about marriage, funerals, travel.
dredmorbius 9y ago
The measure is pre-decimal English currency, dating to the Norman Conquest (1066) and used until 1971. Generally: pounds (£ or l ) of 20 shillings (s. or /-) of 12 pennies (d.) (240 d. per £) The wages section will give you a sense of spending power. A labourer's wages in the 13th century was about 2£/yr, or about 1.5d/day if working 6 days / wk. In practice, employment was not so constant, so 2-4d/day was probably closer the truth. Remember that prices generally translate to labour required to generate income necessary for a purchase: so many hours, days, weeks, months, or years income for an item. http://projectbritain.com/moneyold.htm http://projectbritain.com/moneyold.htm https://www.milesfaster.co.uk/information/uk-currency.htm https://www.milesfaster.co.uk/information/uk-currency.htm
buckhx 9y ago
It's not presented very effectively, but my understanding is that 'd' means penny. Pence is the plural form of penny. "The French Livre, sou, and denier are equivalent to the pound, shilling and penny (Latin liber, solidus, and denarius)."
danarmak 9y ago
The second paragraph ("money goes as follows") explains the notation. 'd' is for pence. Translating prices into modern coins is a hard problem, because you're not comparing like with like. When two countries/markets trade, prices in one can be compared to the other. But across time, when the available products are drastically different, and when the very concept of money and of price was different from today, it's not clear what the comparison would even mean. For instance, the price for very many things (e.g. food, and the wages of many professions) was fixed by law and could stay constant for centuries. If this had not been the case, there would be no meaning in compiling a price list that includes dates across 3-4 centuries, but only one price point for each item listed.
- mortenjorck 9y ago
  Since a pence is 1/12 of a shilling, does the `d` stand for "dozenth"?
  - Tortoise 9y ago
    d stands for denarius, a roman coin
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    The system was used until 1971 in Britain. I wasn't born then, but it is recent enough that there were things around the house, like books or vinyl records, with prices or price stickers using the system: 9/6 etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd
ChuckMcM 9y ago
Well in #1 you missed the section talking about the various coins, a 'd' represents 'penny' or 'pence' (even today a 4d nail is a 4 penny nail). For #2 it gets to the heart of an important economic concept which is that 'money' is really just an indicator of labor and capital, generally unique to each economy. One of the ways to look at it and try to get a comparison is to look at jobs and wages. So how much did a gardner make per year, a farm worker, a craftsman, a judge, etc. It will never give you prices in inflation adjusted dollars for today, but it will give an insight into how the wealth worked in the economy.
grkvlt 9y ago
Yes. You're missing not being brought up in the United Kingdom either before or shortly after decimalisation. pre-decimalisation currency in the UK involved Pounds, Shillings and Pence, based on the old Roman Librae, Solidus and Denarius. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd for details.

sctb 9y ago

> This article is useless without > udnerstanding prices is the whole point of the article Says you! What can you learn from such an article? A list of prices of goods can give you something of a picture of life at the time, by considering the relative cost of things. How expensive was University? Consider it relative the cost of feeding oneself. How was wealth concentrated in population centers? Consider the difference in prices in London vs. elsewhere. You can ask the same sorts of questions about marriage, funerals, travel.

dredmorbius 9y ago

The measure is pre-decimal English currency, dating to the Norman Conquest (1066) and used until 1971. Generally: pounds (£ or l ) of 20 shillings (s. or /-) of 12 pennies (d.) (240 d. per £) The wages section will give you a sense of spending power. A labourer's wages in the 13th century was about 2£/yr, or about 1.5d/day if working 6 days / wk. In practice, employment was not so constant, so 2-4d/day was probably closer the truth. Remember that prices generally translate to labour required to generate income necessary for a purchase: so many hours, days, weeks, months, or years income for an item. http://projectbritain.com/moneyold.htm http://projectbritain.com/moneyold.htm https://www.milesfaster.co.uk/information/uk-currency.htm https://www.milesfaster.co.uk/information/uk-currency.htm

buckhx 9y ago

It's not presented very effectively, but my understanding is that 'd' means penny. Pence is the plural form of penny. "The French Livre, sou, and denier are equivalent to the pound, shilling and penny (Latin liber, solidus, and denarius)."

danarmak 9y ago

The second paragraph ("money goes as follows") explains the notation. 'd' is for pence. Translating prices into modern coins is a hard problem, because you're not comparing like with like. When two countries/markets trade, prices in one can be compared to the other. But across time, when the available products are drastically different, and when the very concept of money and of price was different from today, it's not clear what the comparison would even mean. For instance, the price for very many things (e.g. food, and the wages of many professions) was fixed by law and could stay constant for centuries. If this had not been the case, there would be no meaning in compiling a price list that includes dates across 3-4 centuries, but only one price point for each item listed.

mortenjorck 9y ago
Since a pence is 1/12 of a shilling, does the `d` stand for "dozenth"?
- Tortoise 9y ago
  d stands for denarius, a roman coin
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Symbiote 9y ago
  The system was used until 1971 in Britain. I wasn't born then, but it is recent enough that there were things around the house, like books or vinyl records, with prices or price stickers using the system: 9/6 etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd

ChuckMcM 9y ago

Well in #1 you missed the section talking about the various coins, a 'd' represents 'penny' or 'pence' (even today a 4d nail is a 4 penny nail). For #2 it gets to the heart of an important economic concept which is that 'money' is really just an indicator of labor and capital, generally unique to each economy. One of the ways to look at it and try to get a comparison is to look at jobs and wages. So how much did a gardner make per year, a farm worker, a craftsman, a judge, etc. It will never give you prices in inflation adjusted dollars for today, but it will give an insight into how the wealth worked in the economy.

grkvlt 9y ago

Yes. You're missing not being brought up in the United Kingdom either before or shortly after decimalisation. pre-decimalisation currency in the UK involved Pounds, Shillings and Pence, based on the old Roman Librae, Solidus and Denarius. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd for details.