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

[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.