Prices of the Realm · Aerth Reclaimed

Britannia keeps one coinage and a hundred prices. The list below is the common scale, the price of a settled market town on an ordinary week; choose a town and the list moves as that town moves it. Beneath the list are the rules a company buys by: who knows where to buy, how rare a thing is, and what it costs to want something the realm forbids.

Current Affairs: This Season in the Realm sets out what is happening now, region by region.

The money

The realm counts in twenties. Each coin is worth twenty of the one below it, and the metal climbs with the value, so a coin can be read by its colour before anyone counts it.

Ledgers write farthing; every mouth says mite, and the word has come to mean anything not worth arguing over. A price is spoken in its two largest coins: four and six is four shillings and sixpence, a pound ten is one pound ten shillings.

Coin	Metal	Worth	Spent on
Mitefarthing	base metal, thin and soon worn	the smallest coin	the poor, the worn and the mouthful
Pennyd	copper	20 mites	the ordinary day: food, drink, a bed, a crossing
Shillings	silver	20 pence	the expensive: rent, clothes, a wage, a burial
Pound£	gold	20 shillings	the very expensive: beasts, sealed work, orders against trouble
Sovereignsov.	white gold	20 pounds	houses and land

The band a person handles marks his station, and everyone hears it. A wage earner lives between the penny and the shilling. A company for hire is paid in shillings and equipped in pounds. A patron deals in pounds and sovereigns. Somebody who suddenly spends two bands above his own has come into something, and will be asked what.

Coin carries no name. It changes hands and leaves no trace, and some buyers value that above the sum. Paper is the opposite. A cheque is only a promise made by a banking house, good where that house can be reached and worthless past it. On the coast foreign coin passes at the landings and nowhere inland, and is changed at a loss before Maidstone.

What a pound buys

A pound is twenty shillings, four hundred pence: about three weeks' wages for a Sarrum hall man on seven shillings, and a coin a labourer is asked about if he is seen with one.

In wages	three weeks of a hall man's pay; twenty days of a hired hand at a shilling a day.
In living	a household fed for four weeks; ten weeks in a poor room; six weeks in a four-room house; fifty suppers at an inn; sixty-six nights in a shared room; four hundred pints of common ale.
In goods	a sound fiddle; an arms licence for one bearer; a cheap portrait miniature; two plain coats or three pairs of boots.
Not enough for	a mule (30s), a plain pistol (£2 10s), a sealed door ward (£3), a cart horse (£5), a riding horse (£7).
In bounty	one head of a lesser danger, ten heads of common beasts, or two beasts brought in alive.

The list

Prices in

The common scale, the county, any settled market town. The list as printed: what a market town in the settled belt asks of somebody who is not a fool. Every other place is read against it.

Food and drink

What a citizen lives on. Bread moves with the harvest and the rest barely moves at all.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Pail of water from a public cisterntwo if carried any distance	1–2 mites	Common	C
Handful of coal	5 mites	Common	C
Day-old loaf, hard	10 mites	Common	C
Small beer	15 mites the cup	Common	C
Pint of common ale	1d	Common	C
Hot pie from a stall	1d	Common	C
Loaf of white bread	3d	Common	C
Glass of ordinary wine	4d	Common	C
Cook-shop dinner	5d	Common	C
Quartern loafthe higher figure in a dear year; the figure the whole realm watches	6d–9d	Common	C
The ordinary at an inn	8d	Common	L
Supper at an inn	8d	Common	L
A household's fooda hall household; its wage is 7s	5s a week	Common	C

Lodging and household

Beds, rooms and the running of a house. In the capital lodging is dear and food is cheap.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Straw in the corner of a stable	1d a night	Common	C
Yard or loft at an inn	1d a night	Common	L
Tallow candle	10 mites	Common	C
Bed in a rough house	4d a night	Common	C
Shared room at an inn	6d a night	Common	C
Stabling	6d a night	Common	L
Washing	6d a week	Common	L
Coal and light for a household	18d a week	Common	C
Poor room	2s a week	Common	C
Room where nobody asks anythingthe sixpence is for not asking	2s 6d a week	Common	C
Private room at an inn	2s 6d a night	Common	C
Four-room house	3s 6d a week	Common	C
Market-town house, letrates a fifth to a quarter again	£12–£30 a year	Common	L
Small town house, bought outright	5 sovereigns	Uncommon	C

Clothing

Cloth and leather. Dress is read before speech, so this is less optional than it looks.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Resoling a pair of boots	18d	Common	L
Shirt	2s 6d	Common	L
Hire of a gentleman's coat, against a pledge	1s a day	Common	L
Boots	6s	Common	C
Coata good London tailor asks £1 to £2	10s–£2	Common	L

Services, fees and papers

Hands, learning and offices. The dearness of the old cities is mostly here.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Shave2d with hot towels	1d–2d	Common	L
Linkboy to light you home	1d–2d	Common	L
Porter to carry a bag	2d	Common	L
Dame school	2d a week	Common	L
Letter postpaid by the receiver	2d–4d a sheet	Common	L
Copying	4d a folio	Common	L
Theatre, the gallery or the pit	4d–8d	Common	L
A week's standing in an association	4d a week	Common	C
Bleeding by a barber	6d	Common	L
Hired hand	1s a day	Common	L
Ward entry fee	1s	Common	L
The quiet shilling at an officeCustomexpected in some offices, a crime in others	1s	Common	L
Guide	1s–2s a day	Common	L
Bone-setting	1s 6d	Common	L
Attorney's letter	5s	Common	L
Cambridge examination fee	5s	Common	L
Town carrier's licence	10s	Common	L
Salvage writ or descent permit	15s–£2	Common	L
A burning	£1 10s	Common	C
Arms licenceor £3 for a company of up to six	£1 a bearer	Common	L
Physician's first call	£1 1s	Common	L
Surgeon's operation	£3–£8	Common	C

Travel and beasts

Crossings, hire and animals. Beasts are the first thing a company buys in pounds.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Ferry crossing	2d	Common	C
Day's keep for a man and his horse	1s 4d	Common	C
Cart hired with its driver	3s 6d a day	Common	C
Punt and two men	4s a tide	Common	C
Keep for a party of six	8s a day	Common	C
Lugger and four men	£1+ a day	Common	C
Mule	£1 10s	Common	C
Ox	£3	Common	C
Cart horse	£5	Common	C
Sound riding horse	£7	Common	C
Fine riding horse with a name	2 sovereigns	Rare	C

Arms and gear

Lamps, tools and arms. A sword or pistol needs a licence wherever a council, harbour or House says so.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Small bell, of the March kinda few pence at Harrowgate market	3d	Common	C
Lamp oil	3d a pint	Common	P
Horn lantern	1s 6d	Common	L
Rope, a coil of forty feet	18d	Common	P
Powder and shot for twenty chargesLicensed	2s	Common	P
Knife	2s 6d	Common	L
Sealed lamp that burns in foul airlasts a season of hard use	£2 10s	Uncommon	C
Plain pistolLicensed	£2 10s	Common	L
Plain swordLicensed	£3–£5	Common	L
Good pistolLicensed	£4–£6	Uncommon	L
Cased pair of pistolsLicensed	£8–£12	Rare	L
Gentleman's swordLicensed	£8+	Rare	L
Warranted instrument of the difficult kind	£30+	Rare	C

Marks, wards and sealed work

Protection against what the lamps keep back. Priced like any trade; bought like medicine.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Travelling mark	1s a person	Common	C
Worked metal against a named trouble	1s+	Common	C
House mark, bench-cut	8s	Common	C
Attendance by the Black Lantern Brethren	11s	Uncommon	L
Examined and sealed door wardwarranted twelve years	£3	Uncommon	C
Suppressing orderin Kent £11 to £26; almost no parish holds the sum	£8–£15	Rare	C

Luxuries and imports

Things carried in from the wider world or made for the few. Dearest far from the ports.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Glass of the good Lyonnais	12d	Uncommon	C
Spirits, lawful	2s the quart	Common	L
Tea8s in Cheapside, 10s at Upjohn's	8s–10s the pound	Uncommon	L
Exhibition at the door	1s	Common	L
Music lesson	1s–2s	Common	L
Charm from the Near Coastnot unlawful; blessed by nobody a bishop knows	6d–5s	Exotic	P
Sound fiddle	£1	Uncommon	L
Portrait miniaturea fair portraitist does it for shillings; a studio asks £10 and up	£1–£2	Uncommon	L
Silk, the yard	8s–15s	Exotic	P
Jewel fit for the Great Alianor	3 sovereigns	Exotic	C
Share in a wharf companyruns to tens of sovereigns	10 sovereigns+	Rare	C

Bounty and the taking of dangers

What a company is paid for bringing a danger in, by the head; taken alive, under licence, a common beast is worth five times its head and a danger ten times. A greater danger is posted on the Clearance Roll by whoever wants it gone, and the worst bring in hundreds of pounds, alive thousands. The Cold Market buys the parts on top.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Head of a lesser beasta wolf, a bear, a noxious beast on the Crown's schedule, paid by the hundred bailiff on the head laid on his table	2s the head	Common	C
Head of a lesser dangera common corpse eater, a lesser spirit servant, and their like	£1 the head	Common	P
Head of a greater danger£10 to £500, posted on the Clearance Roll with payer, rate and verifier; the greater and the longer it has closed a road or a market, the higher the posting	£10–25 sovereigns the head	Uncommon	P
Any danger taken aliveLicenseda common beast five times its head, 10s; a lesser danger ten times, £10; a greater danger ten times, £100 to £5,000. For showmen to display or the Collegium and the Schola to study, under licence, with the ward, the insurer and the church officers satisfied	10s–250 sovereigns	Rare	P
A demon delivered to the Unmakingpaid by the Church as for a greater danger, when the demon is destroyed in public on consecrated ground	£10–25 sovereigns	Rare	P
Creature parts at the Cold Marketbrought in cold within four days; five shillings a fortnight later; a hide four pounds	£1 10s–£3 a sound horn	Uncommon	L

Behind the door

Run goods and what the realm forbids. The price is what is asked where the trade runs; everywhere else, see the rules below.

Item	Price	Rarity	Src
Powders, a paperIllicitopiates, dream powders, pain draughts	2d–6d	Common	P
Run spiritsIllicit1s at Dover	2s 6d the quart	Common	L
Run tobaccoIllicit	2s–3s the pound	Common	P
Run teaIllicit3s at Dover	7s 6d the pound	Uncommon	L
Run silk or lace, the yardIllicit	6s–10s	Uncommon	P
Doubtful papersIllicitthey pass a glance, not a clerk	10s–£2	Uncommon	P
Pistol, no licence askedIllicit	£3 10s	Uncommon	P
Good forged papersIllicit	£5–£10	Rare	P
Relic out of opened groundIllicitthe one class the customs house will stop	£1–£10	Exotic	P
Sealed engine out of an old vaultIllicit	1 sovereign–10 sovereigns	Exotic	P

C the books · L Living in Britannia · P proposed here. A + means bidding starts there.

The towns

Each town moves the list by category. A dot is the common scale; a percentage is how far that town sits above or below it.

Town	Food	Lodging	Clothes	Services	Travel	Arms, gear	Wards	Luxuries		The door
The common scale	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	−NaN%	·
London, below the hill	−10%	+25%	·	+10%	·	·	·	−10%	−NaN%	−20%
High London	+50%	× 2	+50%	+50%	+50%	+50%	+50%	+50%	−NaN%	+50%
Kent	+10%	+10%	+10%	+10%	·	+10%	·	·	−NaN%	−20%
Dover, in season	+25%	× 2	+10%	+25%	+25%	+10%	·	−15%	−NaN%	−60%
Dover, out of season	+10%	+10%	+10%	+10%	+10%	+10%	·	−15%	−NaN%	−60%
Oxford	·	·	+10%	+50%	·	+10%	−10%	+10%	−NaN%	+50%
Cambridge	·	+50%	+25%	+50%	+10%	+25%	+25%	+25%	−NaN%	+25%
Sarrum	−20%	·	−30%	−10%	−10%	−25%	+25%	+10%	−NaN%	−40%
Harrowgate	+10%	+10%	+33%	+10%	+20%	+33%	+33%	+50%	−NaN%	+50%

London, below the hill. Food a little under the county price and lodging about a quarter dearer, since every road and river brings the city its bread and none of them brings it a spare room. The Undercity keeps a door open for most of what is forbidden.

High London. The common scale and half as much again, and lodging double or more. There are no shared beds on the hill; the cheapest thing here is a room. The dearest place in the realm, with Cambridge.

Kent. A little above the common scale. Maidstone posts the county's reference prices. In the first fortnight of September the hopping takes every hand and every cart, and nothing can be bought for money.

Dover, in season. The dearest place in the south while the packets run: beds double, everything else a quarter up. The town is open about its prices and honest in its weights. Behind the door it is the cheapest town in the realm for run spirits, tea, tobacco, silk and lace.

Dover, out of season. Kent's prices with the port's advantage on anything landed. An innkeeper here earns his year in the four busy months and does not forget it in the other eight, so a bed is never cheap.

Oxford. The boards show the common scale. The dearness is in fees, porters, gowns and introductions, which no list shows. Marks and wards come cheaper where the Church is strongest; what is forbidden comes dearest where the closes watch.

Cambridge. The dearest town in the realm to sleep, equip and be answered for in. Its kitchens stay cheap: Bell Row feeds the yards at county prices. In the examination weeks lodging doubles again.

Sarrum. The cheapest city in the realm and the worst: alum in the bread, water in the truck ale, slack in the coal, shoddy cloth, paper-soled boots. Its food and clothing are one quality step down at the price shown. Its metal is the exception: hall-stamped iron, knives and second-hand boots are the best value anywhere. A stranger with nobody to speak for him pays a quarter more for a bed. Wards are dear, because the chapter's shrines do not answer and the county ones are four days off.

Harrowgate. Everything made in the south came up an untamed road, and costs a third more for it. The quality is honest, since a stranger cheated here is a stranger who tells the whole March. It is the one town in the March to buy powder, iron, rope, lamps and physic with any confidence, and a company should fill its packs before it leaves.

Buying and selling

These are the first rules of In Hoc Signo Vinces to reach this site, and they are proposed. They use the core roll: the d20 Critical Die and its bands. A board game can play them as printed.

Reading the list

The list price is the common scale. A town's factor for the item's category multiplies it, and the result is rounded to coin a seller would name: mites below twopence, whole pence below two shillings, fivepences (a quarter of a shilling) below a pound, shillings above it. The list itself prints its sources' figures as they stand. Remember the twenties: eighteen pence is still under a shilling.

A price with a plus (+) is where bidding starts. A range is the honest spread between sellers; the low figure is plain, the high figure is good of its kind.

Tags give the source: C, the books; L, Living in Britannia; P, proposed here and not yet in any book.

Quality

Every listed price is for plain work. Other grades multiply it.

Grade	Price	What it means
Shoddy	× ½	Wears out, breaks or fails at the worst moment: a −2 on any roll that leans on it.
Plain	× 1	Sound and ordinary. The list.
Good	× 2	Better made: +1 on a roll that leans on it, or it lasts twice as long.
Fine	× 4	Made by a master of the trade: +2, and it is noticed.
Exceptional	× 10 and up	Made to order only, by a maker whose Profession reaches this grade. Weeks to make.

Sarrum sells plain food and cloth that is shoddy, at the price shown; High London's plain is good. Elsewhere a seller who claims a grade is usually telling the truth, except to strangers.

Rarity

How common a thing is decides where it can be found, how long finding it takes, and how far its price can move.

Rarity	Where it is sold	Finding it	Spread
Common	Any town, any day	No roll	± 10%
Uncommon	Any market town of size	A day of asking: a Check at DR 5	± 20%
Rare	The cities and a few towns that make it	Several days: DR 9, or an Investment Track of 5	± 35%; × 1½ away from where it is made
Exotic	London, Dover, Cambridge, or by a factor's order	Weeks: DR 11, or a Track of 10	± 50%; × 2–3 elsewhere, if it is found at all

Knowing where to buy

Anything not Common, or anything priced in shillings and up, is bought with a Price roll: the d20 Critical Die plus the Attribute Rank that fits (judging goods, or reading the seller), plus what the buyer knows of the place. The result moves the price within the item's spread.

The buyer	Price roll
A stranger, buying off the street	− 5
Asked about, and found it	± 0
Knows the trade or the town: a guide, a Profession in that trade, a local who came along	+ 3
Has a name in it: a regular, a contact, somebody spoken for	+ 6

Price roll	Price paid
Natural 1–2	Taken: the top of the spread, and the goods are one grade worse than claimed. It shows later.
0 or less	The top of the spread
1–5	Half the spread over the list
6–14	The list
15–19	Half the spread under the list
20–29	The bottom of the spread
30 and up	The bottom of the spread, and something besides: credit, a better grade at the same price, or a name for next time

A buyer who wants a better price than the roll gave may haggle: a Contest against the seller's Bargain DR. Each point of Final Impact takes 5% off, never past the bottom of the spread. Failure means the price stands; a critical failure means the seller will not deal with that buyer again this week.

Standing counts double in Sarrum and the lower wards of London, where a stranger with nobody to speak for him also pays a quarter more for any bed.

Behind the door

Illicit goods are listed at the price asked where the trade runs: Dover for anything landed, the lower wards of London and the Cinders of Sarrum for powders and unlicensed arms. Licensed goods, arms above all, become illicit wherever the buyer has no papers for them.

	Behind the door
Spread	− 50% to + 200%. A seller names any price to a stranger.
Finding a seller	DR 9 where the trade runs; DR 13 anywhere else. Every attempt ticks the place's Danger Track by 1.
Premium where the trade does not run	× 2 where the law is slack, × 3 in an ordinary town, × 5 under a garrison or inside the closes
Price roll	− 5 unless the buyer has a name in the trade, whatever else he knows
Natural 1–2	An informer, a riding officer, or goods that are not what was said. At Dover: seizure, a fine of treble the duty, and a name in the riding officers' book.

Selling and pawning

A dealer buys common goods at half the list and pays for rare ones up to three parts in four, if he can be found. A pawnbroker lends a third of the list against a pledge, and the weekly round is pledge on Monday, redeem on Saturday, at a penny in the shilling. The Price roll works the same way when selling, read in the seller's favour.

Bad years and seasons

Bread moves and the rest does not. In a dear year the quartern loaf is ninepence and food runs half again over the list; at a shilling, which living memory has seen twice, the poor districts open their funds and the city holds its breath. A close week in Sarrum puts food up there by a quarter. The packets running double Dover's beds; the examination weeks double Cambridge's; the hopping empties Kent of carts and hands for the first fortnight of September.

The cost of a week

For an Interlude, a character's keep is paid by the week at a level of living. The level sets what a week's rest restores and how the town reads him.

Living	A week	Looks like
Destitute	5d	Straw, the cistern, what is given
Poor	2s 10d	A rough bed, bread and ale, a pie on a good day
Modest	5s	A poor room, cook-shop dinners, clean linen
Comfortable	10s	A private room or a small house, an ordinary every day, a fire
Wealthy	£2	Rooms with a servant, a horse kept, a tailor
Lordly	£10	A house, its servants, and nobody asking

The town's lodging and food factors apply. A week not paid for drops the character one level.