[The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part A. by David Hume]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part A. CHAPTER III 138/145
Silk and cotton were quite unknown: linen was not much used.
An ox was computed at six times the value of a sheep; a cow at four.[**] If we suppose that the cattle in that age, from the defects in husbandry, were not so large as they are at present in England, we may compute that money was then near ten times of greater value.
A horse was valued at about thirty-six shillings of our money, or thirty Saxon shillings;[***] a mare a third less.
A man at three pounds.[****] The board-wages of a child the first year was eight shillings, together with a cow's pasture in summer, and an ox's in winter.[*****] William of Malmsbury mentions it as a remarkably high price that William Rufus gave fifteen marks for a horse, or about thirty pounds of our present money.[******] Between the years 900 and 1000, Ednoth bought a hide of land for about one hundred and eighteen shillings of present money.[*******] This was little more than a shilling an acre, which indeed appears to have been the usual price, as we may learn from other accounts.[********] A palfrey was sold for twelve shillings about the year 966.[*********] The value of an ox in King Ethel ed's[** word ?] time was between seven and eight shillings; a cow about six shillings.[*********] Gervas of Tilbury says, that in Henry I's time, bread which would suffice a hundred men for a day was rated at three shillings, or a shilling of that age: for it is thought that soon after the conquest a pound sterling was divided into twenty shillings.
A sheep was rated at a shilling, and so of other things in proportion.
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