According to the C&C Players’ Handbook, currency in the C&C default setting is decimal like modern American or British currency – while it is not historical is easier to keep straight.
For all calculations in this article we will use the standard C&C values for coinage which are as follows:
1pp = 10 gp = 100sp =1000cp
For example, take the laborer who has manfully carried your pack for a day. According to the 3rd Edition Dungeon Masters' Guide he should be paid 2 sp for his pains . He is expected to pay his room and board out of this. His meals for the day come to 2 silver pieces according to the C&C Players’ Handbook and he is expected to provide for his own room and family out of this!
With wages as depressed as this, it’s a wonder he doesn’t abscond with your pack and join the nearest bandit gang! The fact is, no one will work for less than a subsistence wage. So what is a subsistence wage in D&D terms? Well, let’s consider our expenses. The average household size in feudal Europe was 5 people. We need our breadwinner to feed, house and warm that many people at a minimum of squalid conditions. This means a 1 room shack (figure rent at 1 cp per week – based on the rate of 1 cp/day for a cot in the common room at the local Inn), food for poor meals for 5 people (50 cp) and firewood for each day (1 cp) that works out to about 60 cp per day (figuring a 6 day work week). This means 6 sp per day (16 gp per month) is our “minimum wage”. This is much higher than historical prices but then so are the prices given in the C&C Players’ Handbook.
That should stave off the Jacquerie for a little while. But is this reasonable given the quasi-medieval, agrarian economy most C&C settings assume? If we want to answer that question, we need to look at the economy from the ground up and at the bottom of everything, literally, lay the land.
A cottar or poor peasant farmer probably lives the same squalid existence that his urban laborer counterpart does. He tills 25 acres of land, of which about 19 acres is under active cultivation in any given year. Feudal agriculture was woefully inefficient. In an average year, a feudal farmer could expect to realize 8 bushels per acre (compare this to 150-200 bushels per acre in the modern USA). From his little farm, he could expect 150 bushels. Assume a bushel is 60 pounds of grain (really it varies by product but they tend to hover around the 60 pound figure). A loaf of bread costs 2 cp and a bushel of wheat will make about 150 one pound loaves of bread, allowing for profits by the seller, the wholesale cost for a bushel of wheat should be about 12 sp. This means the value of our peasant farmer’s crop is 1800 sp. Of this, he owes about 16% (or 288sp) in feudal dues and taxes (1/7 was the typical tax rate in feudal times but serfs paid additional fees so we charge him 1/6) and another 10% (180sp) was owed as tithes to the Church. This reduces his income to 1350 sp. He and his family of 3 will eat the same 864 sp in a year that his urban counterpart does, household expenses will account for another 360 sp. This leaves a surplus of 108 sp per year or a hair over 8 sp per month. Of course, in a below average year our little peasant family will be teetering on the edge of starvation (1 year in four on average in feudal times) and in the event of a crop failure they will be in real danger of starving. This confirms our estimate of the “minimum wage” as 6 sp per day or 36 sp per week.
Looking at a wealthier peasant, a kulak or a freeman farmer, we can get an idea of what lower middle-class folks should be making. His farm is about 40 acres of which 30 are under cultivation in any given year. His standard of living isn't much better than the cottar but he can support a larger family (5 was the average in feudal times). His farm will yield 2880 sp, after taxes and tithes(15% to the lord of the manor and 10% to the church) he will be left with 2160sp, his family will consume the equivalent of 1440sp and household expenses will account for 600sp or a surplus of 120 sp (10 sp per month). This means a lower middle-class wage is about 10 sp per day (58sp per week).
A yeoman farmer is one of the wealthier rural commoners (generally only sergeants, innkeepers and smiths will make more). He will hold a farm about 85 acres and have a family of cottars working for him. Allowing 25 acres to be held by the cottars, he has 60 acres. Our yeoman can expect an annual yield of 4320 sp from his farm and 288 sp from his tenants, for a total of 4608sp (3455 after taxes and tithes). He will eat 1.5 times what a peasant does or 2160 sp per year and his household expenses will be similarly higher at 600sp. This leaves a surplus of 396 sp (or 33 sp per month), a man of substance indeed! This puts the typical wage of the middle class at about 384 sp per month or 85 sp per week (18 sp per day)
The rarest, and wealthiest, commoner is the petit sergeant – a non-noble light horseman. He will hold a farm perhaps 130 acres and employ two cottars. Allowing for 50 acres to be held by his tenants, our sergeant can expect to realize 5760 sp from his own crops and another 576 sp in rents for a total annual yield of 6336 sp (4752 after taxes and tithes). His household will eat slightly better than a yeoman. Let’s assume a standard of living two times what a peasant can expect or 2880 sp per year, his household expenses are similarly higher at 1200sp/year; this leaves a surplus of 672sp or over 56 sp per month! This sets the wage of the wealthier commons at about 127 sp per week or 528 sp per month (about 22 sp per day).
Let’s round out our examination of the rural economy by looking at the nobility, starting with a simple knight’s fee. This is a typical minimal manor house of a poor country knight. Our nobleman will hold about 10 square miles (6,400 acres). On this estate will typically live 5 petit sergeants (400 acres), 10 yeomen (600 acres), and 50 peasants (6750 acres) and some 15 cottars (375 acres) leaving 3425 acres under the direct control of the knight. Our petty lordling can expect 33,264 sp per year in taxes and fees and another 132,500 sp or so from his personal crops (165,764 sp per year). About 22 of these sorts of holdings (called Hydes or Knight’s Fees) can fit in a single hex on the master World of Greyhawk map (225 square miles)
Of course, he will owe taxes and tithes on this amount leaving him 124,323sp. He will support 10 servant families (28,800 sp), 10 men at arms (46,000), 3 sergeants-at-arms (31,500) as well as a smith (6336), an armorer (6400) a scribe (4600) and a cleric (4600). The cost of his staff is a staggering 143,977 sp per year. His household will eat very well – figure at twice the standard of a petit sergeant – or 5760sp. This leaves our petty lord a pretty tidy some left over – over 16,000 silver pennies (1600 gold crowns) or about as much as your favorite character made last week. His manor will require upkeep, typically 1% of its construction cost – let’s peg this as the equivalent of keeping a carpenter fully occupied or 4600 sp. Add to his house repair bills the cost of gifts and largess to his own lord, his feudal followers, the Church and other personages best kept happy may reduce his annual income to a mere 10,000 silver pennies but then again, 1000 gold crowns is nothing to sneeze at. It also places the wage of the upper classes at about 13,000 sp per month or 3120 sp per week (520 sp per day). Of course, you can’t hire nobles – they are generally settled on landed estates but this does give us a guideline for wizards, powerful clerics and other hard-to-find specialists.
) throw up my hands and accept that a realistic medieval/fantasy economy is just not feasible given the tropes that most gamers expect from rpgs. That's not to say I haven't tried, of course, or that I don't keep trying ... it's just that I've found my own thinking trapped in a set of circular logic that seems insoluble!
) economic models, that's going to put a lot of pressure on prices and wages. If one multiplies this by 4 (a common party size), we're talking 32,000 gp for a group of PCs to throw around.
