Appendix: Currencies, Values, and Wages

Landau, David; Parshall, Peter

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Appendix: Currencies, Values, and Wages

David Landau, Peter Parshall

The Renaissance Print: 1470–1550

Renaissance monetary transactions were complex. Anyone wishing a general discussion of this bewildering realm of the real and imaginary is encouraged to read Carlo Cipolla’s excellent introduction to the topic: Money, Prices and Civilization in the Mediterranean World: Fifth to the Seventeenth Century (Princeton, 1956). …

Author

David Landau, Peter Parshall

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00154.009

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-13734

Appendix: Currencies, Values, and Wages

Renaissance monetary transactions were complex. Anyone wishing a general discussion of this bewildering realm of the real and imaginary is encouraged to read Carlo Cipolla’s excellent introduction to the topic: Money, Prices and Civilization in the Mediterranean World: Fifth to the Seventeenth Century (Princeton, 1956).

In brief, monetary calculations and exchange were conducted on the basis of three different sorts of quantities: (1) currencies or “real” coins; (2) locally minted and locally recognized coins; (3) moneys of account. “Real” or “big” coins like the Rhenish gulden, the Carolus guilder, or the gold florin or Venetian ducat carried significant value in their metal content and were actually used, for the most part, only in major transactions. These real coins are now typically labeled “currencies” by economic historians. Local or “petty” coins such as the pfennig, the stuiver, or the soldo served for all daily transactions of minor sorts, and on a strictly local basis. Beyond their purely local use the value of these coins depended upon establishing a relationship to one or more of the “real” coins. Finally, moneys of account acted as calculating denominations, that is to say, quite literally, as the means of keeping accounts. Denominations in moneys of account might or might not employ the same designations as those used for local coins and real currencies. In Germany, for example, the standard money of account was the pfund, a denomination for which no actual coin existed. In Florence, on the other hand, the florin or fiorino was a standard money of account like the lira but also a circulating coin. Like local coins, the actual value of moneys of account depended upon their relation to real coin — a relation that sometimes fluctuated according to the actual metal content of these coins, and sometimes according to a variety of external economic factors.

At an event like the Frankfurt Fair, negotiations took place among tradesmen from all parts of Europe, and these merchants carried with them many different currencies and local coins. On such occasions there were exchange booths set up to manage the necessary conversions. The number of different coins, currencies, and moneys of account mentioned by Albrecht Dürer in his Netherlandish Diary (Chapter VI, pp. 352–54) gives one a full sense of the practical confusions encountered by a traveler in this period. For much the same reason that Dürer’s accounts present us with a bewildering prospect of financial calculations and conversions, it is extremely difficult for the historian to make meaningful comparisons among prices from one location to another. This is especially true when the amounts involved are small. Indeed, in the matter of print prices, attaining a very precise gauge of real value is well nigh impossible.

We can, however, get some sense of the value of minor commodities in local contexts. In order to do this, modern economic historians generally construct a scale of real value in monetary terms by establishing chronological curves in the price of basic commodities within a certain region. Typically these calculations are based on changes in the price of grain in relation to the value of wage labor. In the Renaissance those who were dependent upon daily wage labor were unskilled and semi-skilled, and were towards the lower end of the economic spectrum. For our purposes the daily fees given for wage labor are the most available and reliable figures we have for providing some tangible idea of the cost of living in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Europe. Often the figures given in detailed studies are seasonal, being lower in winter and higher for the summer months (when daylight allowed for longer hours and the countryside drew workers away from the town). In cases where abundant statistics are available, seasonal patterns are averaged and approximate figures given for decades or quarter centuries. You will see that changes in amount (versus “real” value) are relatively slight and tend to occur gradually, though sharp deviations do happen where the statistics have been correlated in sufficient density to record abrupt local changes, for example changes resulting from plague or famine. We have usually not bothered to take these into account. In correlating wage labor with print prices we must recognize that the recipients of such wages were not likely to have been among the actual purchasers of prints. Indeed, unskilled labor usually meant a bare subsistence living. However, reaching conclusions about actual conditions on an individual basis even from detailed wage labor series is risky business.1 For a discussion of the pitfalls of these statistics for evaluating actual financial conditions, see Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History (Baltimore and London, 1980), ch. 6. In the most prosperous of European cities such as Antwerp, Venice, Nuremberg, and Florence, the Renaissance was a time of advantage for certain groups among the artisanry. For some of them, prints, and indeed the decorative arts, were almost certainly becoming accessible, a matter of interest, and indeed a matter of status.

It is useful to keep in mind the fact that the sixteenth century was a period of general inflation in Europe, and that wage earners especially experienced a gradual and sometimes dramatic loss in real buying power. It has also been pointed out that a lag in the relationship of wages to prices is a normal pattern since the early modern period in European economic history, and yet the sixteenth century appears to have been one in which this disparity was somewhat greater than usual. The explanations and interpretations of this are various and complex, always in some respect related to the influx of precious metals from the New World. Although it seems fair to conclude that specialists in these matters are themselves unclear about the causes and implications of inflation during the Renaissance, our very limited objectives can be addressed more or less independently.

The cities included in our survey are chosen because of their relevance to the discussion of prices elsewhere in the text, and also because the statistics are available for these locations. Although some additional information on other towns can be found in the chapter notes, we would like to have included more material on Nuremberg, and also something of use on Venice and Amsterdam. However, the rigorous kind of study needed for a precise examination of monetary value in the Renaissance has thus far been done only for a few specific areas, Antwerp most thoroughly. The information summarized below can be enhanced by reference to the sources cited in the notes to the text.

ANTWERP

Antwerp’s economy was in an overall climb throughout the period between 1470 and 1550, though with some flat periods. It had the most active international exchange bank in northern Europe. Wages for skilled and unskilled labor continued to rise gradually, and during the sixteenth century it was even common for craftsmen and manual workers to occupy what were for them relatively expensive middle-class houses. Antwerp was, in this respect, exceptional among European cities where most wage earners are presumed to have experienced a significant loss in real income over our period.2 Hermann van der Wee, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy, Fourteenth–Sixteenth Centuries (Louvain, 1963), vol. II, pp. 384–88.

Coinage:3 Charles Verlinden, Dokumenten voor de geschiedenis van prijzen en lonen in Vlaanderen en Brabant (XVe–XVIIIe eeuw) (Bruges, 1959), no. 125, pp. 14–15; Leon Voet, The Golden Compasses (Amsterdam, 1969–72), vol. II, pp. 445–47.

The basic monetary units in real coin were Flemish and Brabant silver ponds. Furthermore, in the fifteenth century the Rhenish gold gulden was widely used in the Netherlands as real coin. Later on, in 1526, the gold Carolus guilder was introduced by Charles V, and it then came into regular use alongside the pond. In the second half of the sixteenth century the pond disappeared as actual coin and became merely a calculating designation. The basic local coin was the silver groot or groat.

1 Flemish pond = 20 schellingen = 240 denieren or groten or penningen
1 Brabant pond = 20 schellingen = 240 denieren or groten or penningen
1 Carolus guilder (gulden or florin) = 20 stuivers or patars

Equivalences:

1 Flemish pond = 1.5 Brabant ponds = 6 Carolus guilder
1 Brabant pond = 4 Carolus guilder
1 stuiver = 2 Flemish groten = 3 Brabant groten

Moneys of Account:

Designated moneys of account in the Netherlands were also often actual coins. Initially the pound Flemish groat (groot), and thereafter the Flemish guilder (florin or gulden) at 20 stuiver (the stuiver equal to 2 Flemish groats), served as link money in a fixed ratio of exchange with the pond. To accommodate changes in value the groat and the stuiver fluctuated in its silver content depending upon the value of the pond.4 Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, pp. 107–11. Dürer’s dealings in the Netherlands were managed mainly in stuiver,5 See Chapter VI, pp. 351–54. whereas Cornelis Bos’s goods were valued in Brabant ponds.6 Cuvelier, “Le graveur Corneille van den Bossche (XVIe siècle),” Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 20 (1939), pp. 44–49. On the other hand, the Plantin printing house accounts from 1560 onwards were mainly kept in Carolus guilder.7 Voet, Golden Compasses, I, p. 440. Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, pp. 110–11, on the Carolus gold guilder, introduced in an unsuccessful attempt to stabilize the relationship between gold and silver in the Netherlands. Voet, p. 446, unaccountably dates its introduction to 1517 prior to Charles’s ascent to the Hapsburg throne.

ANTWERP WAGES:8 These statistics are taken from Verlinden, Dokumenten, no. 136 (1965), pp. 379–86, whose tables give wages annually throughout the period. The wages are recorded in Brabant money: d = denieren (groats or groten).

YEAR	UNSKILLED (mason’s laborer)	SKILLED (mason or carpenter)
1475	5–7d	9–12d
1500	5–7d	9–12d
1525	6–9d	12–15d
1550	9–12d	12–15d

AUGSBURG

In Augsburg, a town of about 40,000 people, prices increased steadily from the mid-fifteenth century and then rapidly in the early sixteenth century, especially for foodstuffs. Prices far outstripped the gradual increase in wages, resulting in a sharp decline in real income, a disparity that was greater in the south of Germany than it was in the north. (The town council allotted day wages that are considered to have been barely at subsistence level.) Our main interest in Augsburg lies in the second decade of the sixteenth century with Maximilian’s accounts for his woodcut projects. There is a notable gap between skilled and semi-skilled wages compared to Nuremberg. Though our statistics for Nuremberg are scant, these results could be interpreted as reflecting the absence of a guild structure.9 For economic trends in Renaissance Germany in general, see Wilhelm Abel, “Landwirtschaft 1500–1648,” in Hermann Aubin and Wolfgang Zorn, eds., Handbuch der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1971), vol. I, pp. 386–413, and errata. On Augsburg specifically, see M. J. Elsas, Umriss einer Geschichte der Preise und Löhne in Deutschland vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leiden, 1936–49), vol. I, pp. 74–77; and Philip Broadhead, “Popular Pressure for Reform in Augsburg, 1524–1534,” in Stadtburgertum und Adel in der Reformation, ed. Wolfgang J. Mommsen, et al. (Stuttgart, 1979), p. 81. The discrepancy between unskilled and semi-skilled wages and its possible significance was pointed out to us by Michael Foley.

Coinage:

The basic monetary unit was the gulden = 20 schillingen = 240 pfennige. Locally minted coins were the pfennig and the heller, and later on the kreutzer, the taler, and the mark. The real value of the Augsburg pfennig fluctuated on the basis of a silver equivalence in conversions to real currency: 1 Rhenish gulden in 1445 = 160d; 1476 = 210d; 1490 = 212 d, etc.10 See Elsas, Geschichte der Preise und Löhne, I, pp. 112–16, 118–22. For general reference on German coinage, see Ludwig Veit, Das Liebe Gelt (Munich, 1969), pp. 135–40; and Franz Engel, Tabellen alter Münzen, Maße und Gewichte zum Gebrauch für Archivbenützer (Rinteln, 1965), pp. 13–15.

Equivalences:11 Elsas, Geschichte der Preise und Löhne, I, pp. 118–20.

1 kleines pfund = 20 schillinge = 60 pfennige = 120 heller (up to 1500)
1 großes pfund = 240 heller
1 pfund = 60 pfennige (from 1500)
1 rechnungsgulden = 210 pfennige
= 60 kreutzer
= 210 pfennige (from 1539)
= 72 kreutzer (later)

Conversions:

Initially the pound (or pfund) was the basic calculating denomination, designated in two forms — large and small. Around 1500 the pfund was superceded by the gulden (the rechnungsgulden or “guilder of account”) as the chief money of account, and after 1539 the pfund went out of use. Also from 1500 onward the gold gulden (the Reichsgulden or florin and the Rhenish gold gulden, both circulating as actual coins of different worth) became the main currency of real value. In addition, the Esslingen Münzkonvention of 1524 elevated the silver gulden to an imperial coin of equal value to the gold gulden (established by fixing the ratio of its silver content to gold).12 Ibid., pp. 113–22. Documents from Augsburg reflecting the use and value of the currency are lacking for the period immediately after 1500. The actual silver equivalent for the rechnungsgulden declined slightly over the first half-century.

AUGSBURG WAGES:13 The wages are averaged from the tables in ibid., pp. 731–33.

YEAR	UNSKILLED (day laborers)	SEMI-SKILLED (mason)
1499–1520		24d
1499–1503	8–12d
1500–1509	8–14d
1503–1521		32d (winter = 24d)
1510–1527	10.5d
1528–1553	10.5–14d	27–35d

NUREMBERG

Nuremberg’s economy was based on its mercantile activity and its industrial and craft production. Over the course of the Renaissance, when banking and trade practices were evolving at a rapid pace, Nuremberg’s conservative social, political, and economic policies caused the city to lose ground to its main rivals. By the latter half of the sixteenth century Nuremberg’s prominence was eclipsed by Augsburg — a city that was both socially and economically more progressive, and was also better located for taking advantage of major trading arteries.

Coinage:

The basic monetary unit was the gulden = 20 schilling = 240 pfennig = 480 heller. When the designation is in actual coinage (versus money of account), this normally indicates the Rhenish gulden minted by the Rhenish Kurfürsten throughout this period. Also in use was the florin or gold gulden = 30 silver schilling = 240 silver pfenning. Although the gold gulden served as the main gauge of real value in northern Europe during the Renaissance, it gradually lost power to its main rival, the Venetian gold ducat.

Equivalences:14 Veit, Das Liebe Gelt, pp. 134–35.

1 alt pfund = 30 denar (up to 1500)
1 neu pfund = 4 alt pfund = 120 denar
1 Rhenish gulden = 2 pfund
1 florin or gold gulden = 8 alt pfund 12 pfenning = 252 neu pfenning
= 2 neu pfund 1 schilling
= 60 kreutzer
= 72 kreutzer (after 1524)

Moneys of Account:

As in Augsburg, the pfund was the usual money of account in the fifteenth century, but was then used erratically in the following decades with a variable relation to the gold gulden. An approximate relation of the pfund as a calculating denomination to the actual florin or gold gulden is given in the table of conversions above.

NUREMBERG WAGES15 These statistics are averaged from various sources, since, to the best of our knowledge, no systematic study of Nuremberg wages and prices has so far been published. Gerald Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd rev. ed. (Bloomington, Ind., 1976), pp. 203–05, gives only very general figures and a selection of commodity prices for the century as a whole. More precise cases including some figures on wage earnings are cited in the actual documents published by Albert Gümbel, “Die Baurechnung über die Erhöhung der Türme von St Sebald in Nürnberg, 1481–1495,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 20 (1913), pp. 35–62; and Werner Schultheiss, “Baukosten Nürnberger Gebäude in Reichstädtischer Zeit,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 55 (1967/68), pp. 270–99.

YEAR	UNSKILLED	SEMI-SKILLED (mason)	(carpenter)
1482–84			24d
1538–40	24d
1500–1550	16–18d	22–26d	28d

FLORENCE

The Florentine economy followed the general European pattern of inflation. The wages for unskilled labor had been in decline since the middle of the fourteenth century. (There were some abrupt shifts in unskilled wages during 1525–26 when the Rosselli inventory was being compiled, though skilled wages seem to have remained relatively constant. The stipend in the will left to care for the children seems lean at best by average living standards of the time, which may imply some other source of assistance.) Even while wages nominally increased, they decreased in purchasing power throughout the Renaissance when measured against the price of grain. However, the Florentine economy was generally prosperous, and although the pattern of inflation was damaging overall, it did not necessarily erode the ability of individual workers to maintain themselves comfortably.16 Raymond de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank: 1397–1494 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), pp. 31–34. Goldthwaite, Building of Renaissance Florence, ch. 6, and appendices.

Coinage:17 Mario Bernocchi, Le Monete della Repubblica Fiorentina (Florence, 1947–76), vol. III, is the standard corpus for information on the value of coinage and moneys of account.

Like Venice, Florence operated according to a bimetallic system. The basic monetary unit was the internationally recognized gold florin or fiorino. In addition, a silver florin as well as a great many other local coins made of silver and copper (monete di piccioli) were in circulation. Whereas these coins served people in their day-to-day transactions, the gold florin, like the Venetian ducat, was employed only for banking and international trade. The value of the gold florin remained relatively stable between 1450 and 1500, and gradually increased as its dominance on the international market became evident.

Equivalences:

In Italy designations for actual coins also sometimes operated as moneys of account, a system of “ghost money” with occasional live ghosts. Monete di piccioli fluctuated in value and in metal content like local coins elsewhere, varying according to the value of baser metals in relation to gold. Calculations were therefore managed in moneys of account, normally in denominations of the florin (operating as a money of account), or more commonly in denominations of the lira. The real value of these coins was tied to the gold florin or ducat.

Moneys of Account:

The regular money of account was the lira (or libra) = 20 soldi = 240 denari. (When the florin was used as an accounting designation it also carried these conventional denominations.) From the fourteenth century onward the value of the lira was in steady decline in relation to the gold florin. This relationship was apparently monitored daily by posting two different rates of exchange, an official rate and another available “at the counter.”18 Goldthwaite, Building of Renaissance Florence, p. 430, App. I, with exchange values calculated by year up until 1533. The following table gives an indication of the curve in actual value of the lira and soldo over the period of interest to us here:

1 gold florin = 117 soldi = 6 lire = 117 soldi (1480)
= 8 lire = 140 soldi (1500–25)
= 8 lire = 150 soldi (1533)19 Ibid., p. 301.

FLORENTINE WAGES20 Giuseppe Parenti, “Prezzi e salari a Firenze dal 1520 al 1620,” in I prezzi in Europa dal XIII secolo a oggi, ed. Ruggiero Romano (Turin, 1967), pp. 224–26; and Goldthwaite, Building of Renaissance Florence, pp. 437–38.

YEAR	UNSKILLED (manual laborer)	SKILLED (masons, etc.)
1475	8.0	15 (soldi)
1500	9.3	14.5
1525	9–10	15–20
1531	16	30
1534	9–11	15–18
1550	12–14	21–28

1 For a discussion of the pitfalls of these statistics for evaluating actual financial conditions, see Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History (Baltimore and London, 1980), ch. 6. »

2 Hermann van der Wee, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy, Fourteenth–Sixteenth Centuries (Louvain, 1963), vol. II, pp. 384–88. »

3 Charles Verlinden, Dokumenten voor de geschiedenis van prijzen en lonen in Vlaanderen en Brabant (XVe–XVIIIe eeuw) (Bruges, 1959), no. 125, pp. 14–15; Leon Voet, The Golden Compasses (Amsterdam, 1969–72), vol. II, pp. 445–47. »

4 Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, pp. 107–11. »

5 See Chapter VI, pp. 351–54. »

6 Cuvelier, “Le graveur Corneille van den Bossche (XVIe siècle),” Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 20 (1939), pp. 44–49. »

7 Voet, Golden Compasses, I, p. 440. Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, pp. 110–11, on the Carolus gold guilder, introduced in an unsuccessful attempt to stabilize the relationship between gold and silver in the Netherlands. Voet, p. 446, unaccountably dates its introduction to 1517 prior to Charles’s ascent to the Hapsburg throne. »

8 These statistics are taken from Verlinden, Dokumenten, no. 136 (1965), pp. 379–86, whose tables give wages annually throughout the period. The wages are recorded in Brabant money: d = denieren (groats or groten). »

9 For economic trends in Renaissance Germany in general, see Wilhelm Abel, “Landwirtschaft 1500–1648,” in Hermann Aubin and Wolfgang Zorn, eds., Handbuch der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1971), vol. I, pp. 386–413, and errata. On Augsburg specifically, see M. J. Elsas, Umriss einer Geschichte der Preise und Löhne in Deutschland vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leiden, 1936–49), vol. I, pp. 74–77; and Philip Broadhead, “Popular Pressure for Reform in Augsburg, 1524–1534,” in Stadtburgertum und Adel in der Reformation, ed. Wolfgang J. Mommsen, et al. (Stuttgart, 1979), p. 81. The discrepancy between unskilled and semi-skilled wages and its possible significance was pointed out to us by Michael Foley. »

10 See Elsas, Geschichte der Preise und Löhne, I, pp. 112–16, 118–22. For general reference on German coinage, see Ludwig Veit, Das Liebe Gelt (Munich, 1969), pp. 135–40; and Franz Engel, Tabellen alter Münzen, Maße und Gewichte zum Gebrauch für Archivbenützer (Rinteln, 1965), pp. 13–15. »

11 Elsas, Geschichte der Preise und Löhne, I, pp. 118–20. »

12 Ibid., pp. 113–22. Documents from Augsburg reflecting the use and value of the currency are lacking for the period immediately after 1500. The actual silver equivalent for the rechnungsgulden declined slightly over the first half-century. »

13 The wages are averaged from the tables in ibid., pp. 731–33. »

14 Veit, Das Liebe Gelt, pp. 134–35. »

15 These statistics are averaged from various sources, since, to the best of our knowledge, no systematic study of Nuremberg wages and prices has so far been published. Gerald Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd rev. ed. (Bloomington, Ind., 1976), pp. 203–05, gives only very general figures and a selection of commodity prices for the century as a whole. More precise cases including some figures on wage earnings are cited in the actual documents published by Albert Gümbel, “Die Baurechnung über die Erhöhung der Türme von St Sebald in Nürnberg, 1481–1495,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 20 (1913), pp. 35–62; and Werner Schultheiss, “Baukosten Nürnberger Gebäude in Reichstädtischer Zeit,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 55 (1967/68), pp. 270–99. »

16 Raymond de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank: 1397–1494 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), pp. 31–34. Goldthwaite, Building of Renaissance Florence, ch. 6, and appendices. »

17 Mario Bernocchi, Le Monete della Repubblica Fiorentina (Florence, 1947–76), vol. III, is the standard corpus for information on the value of coinage and moneys of account. »

18 Goldthwaite, Building of Renaissance Florence, p. 430, App. I, with exchange values calculated by year up until 1533. »

19 Ibid., p. 301. »

20 Giuseppe Parenti, “Prezzi e salari a Firenze dal 1520 al 1620,” in I prezzi in Europa dal XIII secolo a oggi, ed. Ruggiero Romano (Turin, 1967), pp. 224–26; and Goldthwaite, Building of Renaissance Florence, pp. 437–38. »

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