> But, at the same time, I'm sure a guitar or ink and paper were comparatively expensive, so who knows. When I once came across the price for paper in mid 18th

> But, at the same time, I'm sure a guitar or ink and paper were comparatively expensive, so who knows. When I once came across the price for paper in mid 18th century Germany (I did not keep a reference unfortunately), I compared it to the estimated average annual wage of that time and used today's average annual wage to calculate a price in Euro. The result: the price of a DIN A4 sized piece of paper (623.7 cm²) was aprox. 1 Euro. Not cheap, but in principle still affordable in low quantities for most people. And this is half of today's typical price for one such sheet of handmade paper.