Madelineblackbart: Created page with "What things cost is best understood against what a day's work pays. Every figure here is anchored to a laborer's wage, and every price is a base price; where a city differs sharply, it is noted at the end. Coins: 16 Braell = 1 Serath, 16 Serath = 1 Goyl — see Money. == The working year == The week has nine days; seven are working, and Mwyn and Stil are the week's rest, which most trades do not work. The year is forty weeks and five festival days — two hundred an..."

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Created page with "What things cost is best understood against what a day's work pays. Every figure here is anchored to a laborer's wage, and every price is a base price; where a city differs sharply, it is noted at the end. Coins: 16 Braell = 1 Serath, 16 Serath = 1 Goyl — see Money. == The working year == The week has nine days; seven are working, and Mwyn and Stil are the week's rest, which most trades do not work. The year is forty weeks and five festival days — two hundred an..."

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What things cost is best understood against what a day's work pays. Every figure here is anchored to a laborer's wage, and every price is a base price; where a city differs sharply, it is noted at the end. Coins: 16 Braell = 1 Serath, 16 Serath = 1 Goyl — see [[Money]].

== The working year ==
The week has nine days; seven are working, and Mwyn and Stil are the week's rest, which most trades do not work. The year is forty weeks and five festival days — two hundred and eighty working days and eighty-five off. Household staff, ship's crews, Roedhaven keepers, physicians, and anyone who keeps animals work on days that do not stop and rest in other ways. A working day is offered, not guaranteed; weather, slack contracts, and the days between jobs cut into it, and most people bring home somewhat less than a full year would give. See [[The Calendar]].

== Wages ==
{| class="wikitable"
!Who
!Pay
!A year
|-
|Laborer
|8 Braell a day
|about 9 Goyl in a full year, 7 to 8 in an ordinary one
|-
|Journeyman
|12 to 16 Braell a day
|13 to 17 Goyl
|-
|Master with a shop
|the shop's profit
|40 to 100 Goyl
|-
|Physician, advocate, or navigator
|by fee
|60 to 300 Goyl
|-
|Wealthy merchant
|what his capital earns
|500 to 5,000 Goyl and upward
|}
Laborers are paid in Braell on Staer evening, the last working day of the week; journeymen by the week, mostly in Serath; household staff and crews by the month or the voyage with board; masters take what the shop takes; professionals charge by the consultation or the piece.

== What it buys ==
A laborer's day buys four to eight loaves — tight subsistence, workable only because lodging is shared and cheap; a laborer who eats well has a wife who also works, or a family that pools wages, or both. A journeyman lives modestly and saves a little. A master lives comfortably and one who has done well may keep one slave. A rural cottager is outside all of this.

=== Food and drink ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A loaf of bread
|1 to 2 Braell
|-
|Gechwyn, by the Baelk
|6 to 10 Braell
|-
|A cheap tavern meal
|2 to 3 Braell
|-
|A good tavern meal
|6 to 10 Braell
|-
|Dinner in a fine eating house
|1 to 3 Serath
|-
|Gechra, by the Flaesk
|1 to 2 Braell
|-
|Common wine, by the Flaesk
|3 to 6 Braell
|-
|A good bottle of Vinaith
|1 to 4 Serath
|-
|A great vintage
|1 Goyl or more
|-
|Skoerd, by the Flaesk
|2 to 4 Braell
|-
|Aruvei, by the Flaesk
|4 to 8 Braell
|-
|Sweitroe sugar, by the Klim
|1 to 2 Braell
|-
|Ireich sugar, by the Klim, in the north
|1 to 2 Serath
|-
|Salt Haerl, by the Weith
|2 to 4 Braell
|-
|Aruna, by the Weith
|1 to 2 Goyl
|-
|Zhael, by the Weith
|8 to 16 Goyl
|}
When Gechwyn rises everything rises, and the price of a Baelk is the first thing a household looks at when the harvest is in.

=== Travel ===
{| class="wikitable"
|Caravan passage between cities, one person
|2 to 4 Goyl
|-
|Deck passage by sea
|1 to 2 Goyl
|-
|A cabin by sea
|4 to 10 Goyl
|-
|Hiring an outrider or guard for a journey
|2 to 3 Goyl
|-
|Overland freight
|about a Serath per Weith between cities
|-
|Sea freight
|about a quarter of that
|-
|Joining a convoy
|a share of the escort's cost, usually 2 to 5 Goyl for a merchant hull
|}

=== Lodging ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A bed in a shared loft
|1 to 2 Braell a night, 4 to 8 a week
|-
|A small private room
|3 to 5 Serath a month
|-
|A master's house with its shop
|6 to 15 Goyl a year to rent; 150 to 400 to buy
|-
|A modest house
|40 to 120 Goyl to buy
|-
|A respectable townhouse
|20 to 50 Goyl a year; 500 to 2,000 to buy
|-
|A prestige address
|100 to 300 Goyl a year; 3,000 to 10,000 and upward to buy
|-
|A room at a city inn
|4 to 8 Braell a night; 1 to 2 Serath at a good one
|-
|The Muyra
|1 to 2 Braell a head, 1 Braell an animal
|-
|A bed in a Roedhaven hall
|2 to 4 Braell
|-
|Stabling a Dorath at a Roedhaven
|2 to 3 Braell a night, feed extra
|}

=== Clothing ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A working outfit in Ksaum or Paem, new
|3 to 5 Serath; secondhand, about half
|-
|Sturdy shoes or boots
|4 to 7 Serath
|-
|A good suit of clothes
|1 to 3 Goyl
|-
|A new coat or gown from a named Shining Reach house
|20 to 100 Goyl and upward; a season or two later, secondhand, 2 to 8
|-
|A Clearhold Fleisk coat
|10 to 30 Goyl, kept for generations
|-
|Shilkra, by the Streid
|1 to 3 Goyl
|-
|A plain iron Sigring
|4 to 8 Serath
|-
|A brass Sigring, engraved
|1 to 2 Goyl
|-
|A worked silver Sigring
|5 to 15 Goyl
|-
|A companion's collar in fine silver or gold
|20 Goyl and upward
|-
|A replacement clasp
|4 to 8 Braell
|-
|A new sigil plate fitted to a working collar
|1 to 2 Serath
|}
Every Sigring carries its clockwork release and its breaking clasp whatever it is made of, which is why even the plainest costs more than the iron in it.

=== Household ===
{| class="wikitable"
|Lamp oil, second pressing, by the Flaesk
|2 to 3 Braell
|-
|Head-oil Kravoe, by the Flaesk
|2 to 4 Goyl
|-
|A Kwaenith globe
|3 to 6 Braell
|-
|A Glaenith refill
|1 to 3 Serath, lasting some months
|-
|A household Nyvlaem culture with its Kyvlaem
|5 to 15 Goyl
|-
|A courtyard Nyvlaem
|20 to 60 Goyl
|-
|An icebox
|1 to 2 Goyl; ice from the cart, 2 to 4 Braell a week
|-
|A mechanical cold cabinet
|25 to 80 Goyl
|-
|A crank-driven washing drum
|10 to 16 Serath
|-
|A steam-assisted washer
|2 to 5 Goyl
|-
|A load washed and dried at a laundry house
|2 to 4 Braell
|-
|A closed cast-iron stove
|2 to 5 Goyl
|}
A household burning Kravoe in its parlor lamps is spending a laborer's month on a Flaesk of light, and knows it.

=== Animals ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A Brosdh
|5 to 10 Goyl
|-
|A Dorath
|30 to 60 Goyl; of an Eldershore line, 60 to 120
|-
|A Vaelith
|20 to 40 Goyl; of an Eldershore or Clearhold line, 50 to 120, more with wild blood
|-
|A Vennek pup
|1 to 3 Goyl
|-
|A Broek taught three routes
|40 to 120 Goyl
|-
|A trained Skae
|15 to 40 Goyl
|}
A matched Dorath team costs more than its animals do separately, because a merchant is paying for the match.

=== Services ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A physician's visit
|2 to 4 Serath; 1 to 2 Goyl from a physician with a name
|-
|Setting a bone
|4 to 8 Serath
|-
|A course of Wykleir
|4 to 8 Serath
|-
|A radiograph
|8 to 16 Serath
|-
|Abdominal surgery
|5 to 20 Goyl
|-
|Surgery on the chest or heart
|50 to 200 Goyl and upward
|-
|Nyvra
|1 to 2 Serath
|-
|Wynyvra
|2 to 5 Goyl
|-
|A simple hook and harness
|3 to 8 Goyl
|-
|A fitted hand with preset grips
|20 to 60 Goyl
|-
|A Stormharbor hand or leg of the finest kind
|60 to 150 Goyl
|}

=== When someone cannot pay ===
Surgery costs more than a laborer earns in a year, and nobody in the Known World is left to die for that reason; a physician who turned away a dying man would have failed his Station. Shining Reach runs public clinics from the Senate's treasury and the Academy's teaching wards treat the poor for nothing. Forgegate's guilds keep sick funds. Clearhold treats everyone to the same standard and the city pays. Eldershore's lineage halls pay for their own. Stormharbor's whaling articles pay for injury and the Thing hears a family whose man could not be treated; what a crew does not cover, the neighborhood usually does. Beyond that the Family aspect does what it always does: a household answers for its members. In the Coves care is whatever can be paid for, and a crew's articles are as close as they come to a sick fund.

=== Slaves ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A barred slave, war captive or sentenced for violence
|2 to 6 Goyl
|-
|A murderer sold on
|1 to 4 Goyl
|-
|Untrained labor
|6 to 12 Goyl
|-
|Trained heavy labor
|10 to 18 Goyl
|-
|A trained domestic
|15 to 30 Goyl
|-
|An attendant
|25 to 50 Goyl
|-
|A tavern slave
|20 to 40 Goyl
|-
|A supervisory slave
|30 to 60 Goyl
|-
|A skilled slave — bookkeeper, tutor, musician, physician's assistant
|60 to 250 Goyl
|-
|A companion from a premium house
|50 to 150 Goyl
|-
|An exceptional lot at a premium auction
|200 to 1,000 Goyl and upward
|-
|Renting a tavern slave from a slaver
|3 to 5 Serath a week
|}
Within every range the price moves with the particular person. A thistle charm takes about a third off; the ribbons tell a buyer what he is getting rather than moving the price by themselves; an Aesloes sells low. The purchase is the smaller cost — it is the upkeep that keeps most households at none or one. See [[The Slave Market]].

=== Vessels ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A small fishing boat
|15 to 40 Goyl
|-
|A coastal trader of about 800 Baerl
|200 to 500 Goyl
|-
|A merchant ship of about 3,000 Baerl
|800 to 2,000 Goyl
|-
|A large merchant ship of about 8,000 Baerl
|3,000 to 8,000 Goyl
|-
|Clockwork rigging, fitted
|150 to 400 Goyl
|-
|A Fraeska colony split from good stock
|20 to 60 Goyl
|}
A ship carrying Aruna is carrying cargo worth more than the ship.

=== Clockwork and instruments ===
{| class="wikitable"
|A plain wall clock
|3 to 6 Serath; a good one, 12 Serath to 2 Goyl
|-
|A plain pocket or wrist watch
|4 to 7 Serath; a good one, 2 to 6 Goyl; a fine Forgegate one, 10 to 40
|-
|A mantel or long-case clock
|15 to 60 Goyl
|-
|A chronometer
|30 to 60 Goyl
|-
|Renewing an instrument's pile
|2 to 6 Serath
|-
|A difference engine
|400 to 1,500 Goyl, and the steam plant to run it besides
|}
A plain watch is the most common machine anybody owns. A difference engine is the reference for what an expensive machine is, and no household has ever bought one.

== By city ==
'''Shining Reach''': grain cheap; new fashion and prestige addresses dearer than anywhere; secondhand fine clothing cheap, because last season's coats go somewhere. '''Forgegate''': clockwork and tools cheapest at the source; ordinary rent the highest in the world, because the Neck fills every bed. '''Stormharbor''': grain and wine dear; fish, Fleisk, and Skoerd cheap. '''Eldershore''': sugar, spice, fruit, and fine Paem cheap; its own Dorath and Vaelith lines and mechanical cold cabinets the dearest. '''Clearhold''': everything imported dearer for having come up the mountain; fine Fleisk, Shilkra, and Thearwy at their cheapest. '''The Iron Coves''': anything stolen cheap, anything honest dear.

== See also ==

* [[Money]] · [[Weights and Measures]] · [[The Trades]] · [[The Slave Market]] · [[The House]]

Wages and Prices - Revision history