01-24-2019, 08:34 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Price of a crossbow...
I happened to be reading through a recently acquired Osprey book (MAA494 Forces of the Hanseatic League 13th–15th Centuries) and noted that the city of Hamburg retained a master crossbowmaker who was expected to produce four weapons a year and paid a bonus for anything over...
Making a few assumptions about what a master craftsman might get paid, that would seem to put the modern equivalent price of a crossbow at perhaps some £10k. Which seems a lot... Am I missing something? |
01-24-2019, 09:01 AM | #2 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Some possibilities:
Was this person in the exclusive employ of the city, or was the deal "I'll be paid my retainer if I make at least four crossbows for the city in addition to the dozens I crank out for buyers who aren't the city"? Were these regular, man-portable crossbows, or were they massive "rampart crossbows" for defending the city? Was this person a true master, creating crossbows which would in the terms used by roleplaying games be "masterwork" or "fine" weapons, the crossbow equivalent of bespoke elephant guns or at least extensively rebuilt, accurized sniper rifles, not mass-produced infantry rifles?
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
01-24-2019, 09:48 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Yeah, I suppose those would all work - the same section talks about a range of pretty impressive crossbows, so these might have been high end weapons.
Does anyone have known medieval prices kicking about? The traditional list (Hodges) is pretty poor for weapons ... |
01-24-2019, 09:49 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Quote:
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
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01-25-2019, 08:38 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Quote:
Useful link by the way. |
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01-25-2019, 04:14 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Did he get paid anything for that retainer? "Retained" technically means "keeps you from leaving", it doesn't actually say anything about paying you anything at all, let alone paying your entire living. It may be he's required to provide those 4 crossbows *for free*, and then will get paid whatever the "bonus" is for anything over that.
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-- MA Lloyd |
01-25-2019, 05:25 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Quote:
Osprey MAA494 (as above) |
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01-31-2019, 12:20 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
If you take a look at the price of four Fine Quality Military Crossbows from Low Tech it starts to look a bit more like something a master crossbow maker might get out of bed for, but still probably not all of his work for the year.
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02-01-2019, 12:11 PM | #9 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Price of a crossbow...
Quote:
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