Kind of amazing to consider that a pound was used as a measure of money in the early 15th century, similar to the same as it is today in the British Islands. More interesting is the value comparatively speaking of a 15th century pound to one of the last few years, specifically 1999. Let me back up a bit first though and then move forward.

Having recently gotten mostly settled into a new residence, I have managed to get my things (yeah, my things – your stuff) in one location for the first time in three years. Probably more than you want to know, but in the process of that, it is all in one building instead spread out over four of five like it was before. Anyway, this has allowed me to get my books all in the same relative location as well. While I am liking bookshelf space for all of them at this point, it is giving the opportunity to re-read a few select scholarly medieval works that I greatly appreciate.

I was immediately drawn to the Hundred Years War time frame and more specifically, Henry V and Agincourt. Largely because it is this immortalized battle from Shakespeare that more than anything else lead me to my passion for medieval reenacting in general. My first selection for rereading is Agincourt by Juliet Barker (another inspiration with her collaborative work on Tournaments with Richard Barker).

Before even getting to the text, in the preface and notes I was struck by a notion. She explains about translating to modern English the Latin, older English phrasing and especially the Medieval French. She follows this up by also noted that the fractional units of the pound are retained, instead of the decimal amounts used today, including things such the pence and even the crown, noble, and mark. What in particular struck me though was the compared value.

According to the Office for National Statistic (England?), a pound of 1415 would equate to 414 pounds in 1999. I figure that has to be pretty close to the same amount today, given the heated economy and subsequent rapid decline in the last ten years. So, do a little thinking about that and consider the typical that we expect on investments today. For instance, most of my 401K stuff brings about historically (20-30 years) averaging something close to 10%. The stock market historically (100+ years) averages about 10% for investors putting in and holding).

Doing a little rounding to make it all simple, assuming an average return of 10%, compounding only once annually a 1 pound investment 500 years ago would yield 496,984,196,731,243,500,000 pounds today. If we get rid of compounding though we would hit only 51 pounds. And while this seems so much smaller, it is much closer to the actual gain of roughly 400.

Really makes me stop and wonder if we are being honest with our compounding (overall and in general, not necessarily specific). It also makes me wonder what criteria was used to reach that 414 pound amount by the National Office of Statistics. Lastly, makes me realize that investment in art and armour would have been a much better investment 500 something years ago then just putting the money in the bank so to speak.

Tags: 15th century, Agincourt, book, history, Medieval, pound