I was listening to a Radio National discussion today about life in England during the late middle ages. The following story sparked my interest:
‘Agnes Terry’s recollections of her (alleged) extraordinary childhood as the ward of a dishonest guardian; from her petition to Chancery; c. 1450’
She claims that her mother and father arranged that after their deaths she would be left to the guardianship of John Bicombe, parson of Hatford, together with her inheritance of £40, goods worth £20, and rights over various properties, including a house in Farringdon worth £25. She was then ‘of right tender age’.
The mention of a house being worth only 25 pounds caught my attention. I wondered how much silver that represented.
Well in 1450 I belive a pound represented a troy pound of sterling silver.
A Troy Pound contains 12 Troy Ounces.
Therefore a troy pound of sterling silver is:
12 x 0.925 (purity of sterling silver) = 11.1 troy ounces of 999 silver.
So the house was worth:
25 x 11.1 = 277.5 oz of 999 silver.
Well at current (22 Sep 2012) prices that equates to:
277.5 x 21.26 (GBP spot price of silver) = £5,900
So the house was worth only £5,900?
But we know you can't buy a nice house in a rural town in England for GBP5,900 - such a house would cost at least £125,000
So to upscale the silver value from 1450 to present day we need to recalibrate it to current house prices:
125,000 / 5,900 = 21.18
21.18 x 21.26 = £450/oz silver price or $730
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