The cow standard

[ffutures]

For the Tooth and Claw game dragons eat a LOT of meat, so I think that I have to assume that the average wage will pay for e.g. a cow every few days, and that meat in general will be cheap whereas some types of food (e.g. bread, cheese) either won't be on sale at all, or will be a niche market catering to foreign (human) tourists and foodys. What I want to do is work out things adventurers might want to buy - e.g. beer, guns, etc. - based on the thing I know - e.g. cows.

What I really need is some idea of the cost of a beef carcasse in the mid-Victorian era. I can then relate other prices I know to that. Presumably information like this is available, but I've not got very far - I got a victorian maths text that gave three different prices for a cow in three different sums, but I'm pretty sure that there is no real world connection, the numbers were just used to make the sums work.

Maybe something like a naval history, presumably navies bought meat in bulk? Anyone got any thoughts?

Later It occurs to me I'm looking at this wrong - it's only the big rich dragons that will be eating whole cows, your average dragon in the street probably just buys a goat or a few pounds of beef. So I'll work it out from butcher prices, which I already have.

Comments

[shana.livejournal.com]

Why cows?

Don't forget goats and sheep! And pigs!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Any of those will do - all of them would be excellent - but this is just for getting a ballpark figure, once I have even one of these I will work out the cost based on Victorian prices for smaller cuts I already have.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

This is the best I can do so far:

"Herefords were still bred as prime cattle not fashionable breeds and in 1819 the average price at auction for 28 Prime Herefordshire Cattle of Benjamin Tomkins was £149. The Hereford was pre-eminent among the best breeds of the country."

From here:

http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/agriculture%20_industry/hereford_cattle.htm

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Seems a bit on the high side. I'm willing to bet the Navy wasn't paying anything like that for carcasses.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

If only my grandfather were still alive. He ran a canning plant that canned meat for the military, I'm sure he'd have had records. And precise details of exactly how much horse and donkey got mixed in with what was supposed to be beef.

Mostly donkey actually.

[i_kender]

This is tangential, but have you read the Temeraire books? Naomi Novak... dragons in the Napoleonic Wars.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've heard about them vaguely, but I'm deliberately avoiding looking until I've got this finished so I'm not tempted to nick anything from them.

[i_kender]

Fair enough. They're enjoyable... especially when they start getting into issues of dragon emancipation and rights.

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Well this old New York Times article says in 1900 British Beer was about 97 pfennigs a pound.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C0CE4D9133CE633A25753C1A9679D946396D6CF&oref=slogin

This article says a pound of beef is 10 cents a pound.

http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/1900.htm#daily%20life

And finally a list of commodity prices for 1890:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0034-6535(192610)8%3A4%3C177%3AAMIOCP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

However, this one requires that you access their site from a library.

Finally, there is this search string on Google Books that might help:

http://books.google.com/books?source=web&q=meat+prices+1890+england&btnG=Search+Books

My Google-fu is strong...

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

British Meat... Not British Beer... I just had a wonderful bottle of Porter from a British brewer named Meantime...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, the meat prices for butchers cuts are more or less easy to find, it's the price for a carcasse or a side of beef that seems to be a bit more obscure. Dragons don't eat meat by the pound!

My faith in Google books was never strong, and it wanes more with every one of those "you'll have to borrow this one from a library or buy it frome Abebooks" links.

I'll check if my local library has access to that site, might be a possibility.