Price and Cost of Day to Day items

[Fox]

Okay, this is now as clear as the Thames.

Let me see if I have this right. There was no coin called the "pound", but the coin whose value was one pound was the [gold] "sovereign", correct?

Correct.

And its symbol could be either "£" or "li".

Yup, the £ sign is a stylised capital L

Was there a "Silver Sovereign" too?

I wouldn't like to say there was never one, but not that I'm aware of.

And a "tanner" meant 6d? Was the term "sixpence" also used alot for this amount in that period?

Yes, extensively.

"Tuppence" for two pence?

Probably, it's only a contraction of two pence after all.

Now I wonder if "Quid" or "Bob" is correct to use for the period. Maybe that slang was used at a later time? I have no idea.

The OED gives the earliest citation for quid as 1661, and bob as 1789

I have never heard of an "Angel" coin before, although I have heard of "groat" coins.

The reason I couldn't remember its value, apparently, is because it changed over time. It was last issued in the mid-17th century.

[Tar Bucket Bill]

I did some pokin' around on the Internet in an endeavor to unwrap the mysteries of English coinage and their values during the GAoP period. Being a Yank in the 21st Century, it's all new to me, but the late 17th Century/early 18th Century Devonshire landsman-turned-sailor in me wants to understand these coins, so that they can possibly be used at living history events.

This seems like a rather good website that explains things well and shows images of coins.

http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/

Can someone please spare half a guinea to a poor old seaman who wot lost his way and all his belongings at Port Royal in 1692 in the Service of His and Her Majesties King William and Queen Mary?

-Tar Bucket Bill

[not worth a farthing]

[Tar Bucket Bill]

I found this website that has tavern drink prices for Salem, New Jersey circa 1729. That's at the end of the GAoP but maybe still a bit useful for us.

www.2020site.org/drinks/punch.html

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In Salem, New Jersey, in 1729, tavern prices were regulated by the Court. They were thus:--

"A rub of punch made with double-refined sugar and one and a half gills of rum . . . . 9d.

A rub of punch made with single refined sugar and one and a half gills of rum . . . . 8d.

A rub made of Muscovado sugar and one and a half gills of rum . . . . 7d.

A quart of flipp made with a pint of rum . . 9d.

A pint of wine . . . . . Is.

A gill of rum . . . . . . 3d.

A quart of strong beer . . . . . 4d.

A gill of brandy or cordial . . . . 6d.

A quart of metheglin . . . . . . 9d.

A quart of cider royal . . . . . . 8d.

A quart of cider . . . . . . 4d."

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Prices are mostly in Pence [d]. A pint of wine, however, is 1 Shilling [1 bob].

Another site for good photos of some of the English coins in circulation during the GAoP are at this website. No diameters of the coins unfortunately. But I am working on that information.

R. Ingram Coins

www.ringramcoins.com/antique_coins_catalogue.shtml

-Tar Bucket Bill

[Fox]

I don't suppose anyone is much interested in the prices paid by pirates for western commodities in Madagascar in 1697?

Cornelius Jacobs arrived at St. Mary's Island in June of that year with a cargo of goods sent by New York merchant Frederick Philipse. He managed to fetch the following prices:

Rum: at first by the barrell at 3 pc of 8 a gallon, afterward 3 1/2 pc of 8 and at last 4 or 5 pc of 8 a gallon.

Wine: by the whole barrell at 3 pc of 8 a gallon. But moste retayled at a pc of 8 the Bottle

Beer. one barril was sold at 60 pc of 8. All the rest retayled by the tancker at a pc of 8 the tancker, which held about 1/3 of a gallon. But had been the same price if it had held but a quarter.

Lime juice was sold at 4 pc of 8 a gallon

Sugar at 4 ryales a lb

Tarr at 24 pc of 8 a barril

Salte at 10 pc, afterward 12 pc of 8 a 1/2 barril

Peace [peas], at first 12 & afterwards 15 pc of 8 a 1/2 barril

Writing paper 1 pc of 8 a quyor

Hatts 12 pc of 8 each

Pumps 3 pc of 8 a paire

Tobacco Pipes 6 ryales a dozen.

HCA 1/98 f. 142

Given that wine in Madagascar fetched roughly three times the price it did in New Jersey, according to the above post, and beer something like ten times the amount(!), one can see the motive for Philipse and his cohorts to sail so close to the wind of legailty.

The fact that the priates were prepared to pay more for lime juice than they were for any alcoholic liquor (except for rum at the end), is also probably worth investigating.

[Tar Bucket Bill]

Lime was a key ingredient to Rum Punch.

Ingredients of rum, lime juice, sugar and spring water have been used for rum punch since at least the late 1680s. It was a very very popular drink.

I make a pretty tasty hi-test rum punch with those very same ingedients. I used turbinado sugar the last time I made it, but I want to try it sometime with muscovado sugar. I'd also like to try it with a rum that is closer to period correct. I understand that rums were mostly dark and heavy before the late 1800s. Anyone know of a rum like that?

It seems like I remember reading in "The Pirate Hunter" that prices in Madagascar were quite high around this time. It may have very well been this same bloke. Can't remember.

-Tar Bucket Bill