Medieval Economics in Fantasy & Feudalism | World Anvil

Medieval Economics

Silver Standard

1kg of gold =    

Food production

During the middle ages, a human needed around 2 acres of land per year in order to survive. Currently only 1/3 of an acre is required. Serf 5 (bare min) 10 - 15 (average) acres / family Manor 1500 - 6000 acres Average Household 8-10 people in average 4-6 abled workers   --- An acre was the amount of land tillable by one man behind one ox in one day. Traditional acres were long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the plough. 1 acre = 43,560 square feet = 40x4 rods (160 square rods) 660 feet (a furlong) long and 66 feet wide Grain production: (4-5 in a bad year) 7 to 15 bushels per acre (1 sack = 1 bushel = 25.4 kg / 60lb of Grain seed ) Serf tax to Lord's = 1/20 5% all the way up to 1/5 20% + 3-6 man-days / week + Animal/Produce Gifts to the Lord Freeman Tax = 1/20 5% all the way up to 1/10 10% Church Tithe: 1/10 (10%) Miller's Fee 1/16th (6,25%) Baker's Fee 1/20th (5%) (For any baked food)  
A prosperous English peasant in the 14th century would probably consume 2 - 3 (1-1.5kg) pounds of bread, 8 ounces (220gr) of meat or fish or other protein and 2 -3 pints (1kg) of ale per day. The bread was usually mean of rye, oats, or barley.
  Normalization 1 acre produces 10 bushels (254kg of Wheat Grain) After Setf Taxes: 1/10 to the lord= -25.4 1/10 to the Churh = -25.4 = 203 kg of Wheat Grain After Freeman Taxes 1/20 to the lord= -12.7 1/10 to the Churh = -25.4 = 215.9 kg of Wheat Grain   Bread Making 1000g of Bread = 800g of Flour + 200g of Water + 500g of Charcoal 1kg of Bread = 2650 kcalories     Milling Production Efficiency: Brown: 1000g of Grain = 650 - 800g of Brown Flour White: 1000g of Grain = 500 - 750g of White Flour   Time: Hand 5kg / hour > 30-40kg / day WInd 20kg / hour > 200kg / day Ox/Donkey: 200 kg / day Horse: 300 kg / day Water 200kg / hour > 2000 kg / day   Food / person The average man needs (4500kcal * 365days = 1,642,000kcal per year The average woman/child needs (3000kcal * 365days = 1.095,000kcal per year Considering that Working Men:Women ratio is 1:1 in average => A worker needs = 1.368,000kcal / year The average child/elder needs (2000kcal * 364days = 730,000 per year and that the ration for worker to non-worker was 4:10 The average human needs ((1368000*4)+(730000*6))/10 [b 985,000 ]kcal / year to survive   For a serf 1 acre of Wheat after tax will produce 225kg (25kg fee of the miller) of Bread (1kg of bread 2650kcal) = 596,000 kcal   If someone was to only eat bread they would need 985,000 kcal / 2650 = 371 Breads => Each person would need 371/225 = 1.65 acres to survive. But in truth people also:
  • Vegetables from their garden and foraging (if allowed)
  • Meat from their animals (cow,sheep,goat,pig,chicken, duck, geese)
  • Milk from their animals (cow,sheep,goat)
  • Eggs from their animals (chicken, duck,geese)
  • Beer (part of their barley production)
  • Many of those were fermented, smoked, dried, pickled or salted for the winter)   Beer Could be made at home with no tax 10% loss of calories during fermenation on average https://www.quora.com/When-yeast-feeds-on-sugar-during-fermentation-is-it-actually-reducing-the-calorie-count-of-a-fermenting-substance       http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html http://www.lostkingdom.net/social-stratification-of-a-feudal-kingdom-part-2-the-glue-that-holds-it-all-together/     Charcoal Making 1000kg of Wood = 200kg of Charcoal (5:1) Coal and Charcoal are considered almost equially efficient   Baking/Cooking Burning wood directly is significantly less efficient (from 15:1 to 10:1 compared to 5:1 for charcoal or coal 1 kg of Meat needs 1kg of Charcoal  

    Medieval Professions

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UFAerm2J4zbsBMZUp_FlffkWX_gf4W3ERaf6YoVtCNI/edit#gid=0

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    Prologue
    Welcome to your Kingdom
    Read the Changelog

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