Negotiating My Salary

Warwickshire, England - Wages by occupation, 1650s-1730s found in the chapter "Wages and Prices" in One hundred years of poor law administration in a Warwickshire village. The listed salary above is a daily wage for the common folk. s. stands for shilling and d. stands for denarius or a penny.

Reference page can be seen here Wages and Salaries 1657

Average Salary

As a collared cadet, I have a salary. This is uncommon in the SCA to offer dependents salaries, but I am an existing protégé from a line of Italian-loyalist mercenary Landsknecht. Part of my written Indenture contract with my Pelican was to always receive adequate compensation for my services. My MoD has agreed to offer me a salary to honor this agreement.

In the late 16th century, the average salary of a journeyman above the age of eighteen was 6 denarius with meals included or 1 shilling per day. For the context of this Indenture, I'm considered a journeyman. Another document from 1300s England reflects some inflation. Using the example of a "master mason" in both charts, in the 1300s a master mason would have earned 6 shillings in 1390, whereas in 1657 the same role earned 6 shillings with meals or 10 without. It is unknown if the 1390 payroll included meals or not.

For one reason or the other that no one can remember, we opted not to use shillings and denarius. Instead, we decided to use raeles. I suspect that this decision has to do with one looking prettier than the other, but I'm not certain. Hint: Alcohol was involved during negotiations.

Negotiating My Salary

Negotiating your salary, whether in real life or in the context of the SCA is challenging. At the end of the day, it's about knowing what skills you bring to the table, your experiences, your education/training, and what services you can offer.

At the time, I was already a recognized and accomplished scribe, which was a period profession and also an important job in the Society. I received my AoA from An Tir for fencing and scribal arts, I had served as the A&S champion of Bitter End. I had also received my AoA-level A&S awards from Atlantia, AEthelmearc and the East, plus I also more recently came in second place in the An Tir Knowne World Back Log Competition under the Masters category.

As a fencer, I was the first winner of the "For the Cause" tournament in the East Kingdom, plus I was also a Baronial and Kingdom champion.

I requested food and lodging at a rate of 6 shillings per day or 2190 shillings annually.

Excerpt from the Salary of an 15-16th century Fencing Master to show the purchasing power and economic situation of the time.

So, what EXACTLY can I buy?

The calculations used for my salary, as stated above was 6 shillings per day or 2190 shillings annually.

According to Goucher University, in the very broad "medieval times" the conversion of shillings to pounds was 20:1. Rough calculation shows that my annual salary would be 109 pounds, 50 shillings.

This currency calculator created by UK National Archives shows that 110 pounds in 1530 give me the modern-day (2017) salary of £48,099.19. Not too shabby!

See the side reference image to show what I could possibly buy, assuming I was running around Italy.

Sheep and Horses?

If you haven't noticed, my Indenture has a part written into it that discusses the care of my sheep and horses on my MoD's pastures. The UK National Archives generated this lovely image to show what I could buy in 1530 with my wages. Naturally, I bought sheep and horses with my earnings.

Converting Shillings to Raeles

Outside of negotiating my actual salary, the next hardest part was figuring out what currency my compensation would come in. Since he said that he would be paying me in raels, the appropriate calculations had to be made. Raels were a Spanish currency, and Spain had a different currency system from the rest of Europe. See image on side for photo of reales.

34 maravedis = 1 reale
8 reales = 1 peso

Then the site goes on further explain that 1 reales was worth 6 English pence or 5 Dutch stuivers while the country suffered sufficient inflation during the time.

There were two ways that we could have figured out how to convert shillings to reals:
1. Calculate the mass of the metal used and convert it to market value
2. Research the period conversion rates

Spanish reals or real de vellon were produced in 1600 by King Philip II, and were made out of silver weighing approximately 418.0g. The first method would be a helpful guideline to use, but it didn't account for inflation.

To further calculate the conversion, I used this online calculator created by the Pierre Marteau Publishing House, which converted my salary according to the Paritus rates of 1709:

1900 Spanish Reales = 51 Pounds
Calculations using Marteau calculator: 109 Pounds, 50 Shillings = 4153 Raeles, 31 Maravedis

Calculating Shillings to Reales using the 1663 Conversion:

According to Roseboom Books the conversion of the British monetary system in 1663 was as follows:
20 shillings = 1 pound
12 pence = 1 shilling
240 pence = 1 pound
1 reales = 6 pence

The conversion of pence to shillings has been unchanged for centuries.

Step 1 Convert pounds to shillings- 190 pounds and 50 shillings = (190 pounds x 20) + 50 = 3850 shillings
Step 2: Convert shillings to pence - 3850 shillings = 3850 shillings x 12 = 46, 200 pence
Step 3: Convert pence to reales - 46,200 pence / 6 = 7,700 reales

Somewhere between 1709 and 1663, the reales was subject to massive inflation.

Works Cited

Battistini, A., & Corradetti, N. (2016). Income and working time of a Fencing Master in Bologna in the 15th and early 16th century. Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 4(1), 153–176. https://doi.org/10.36950/apd-2016-005

Turner, F. (2023). Money and exchange rates in 1632. 1632.org. https://1632.org/1632-tech/faqs/money-exchange-rates-1632/

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