sueldos carlines

chained_bear commented on the word sueldos carlines

"The small kingdom of Navarre in the western Pyrenees on either side of the modern French-Spanish border provides an example of relative prices in a less cosmopolitan setting than London. The kings of Navarre were important princes with connections throughout northern Spain and southern France. Between 1408 and 1412, royal household accounts show that the price of pepper doubled from eight to sixteen sueldos carlines to the pound. A pound of ginger, somewhat more expensive than pepper, remained steady at an average of three and one-half times a carpenter's daily wages, while cloves rose from five to six times those wages."

Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 127-128.

November 28, 2017