02-14-2020, 07:32 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
I apologize if this has been discussed before.
I am looking through Loadouts: Low-tech Armor and I am struck by how costly the regular clothing items listed tend to be. How is it that a regular pair of trousers or a basic tunic can be in the hundreds of dollars? |
02-14-2020, 07:40 AM | #2 | |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
Status. See p. 3:
Quote:
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02-14-2020, 07:52 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
Quote:
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
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02-14-2020, 08:01 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
The Hodges list:
http://web.archive.org/web/201106282...ces.html#CLOTH AND CLOTHING Gives some indicative prices - compare to the wages at the bottom to see that even the "landless serf's tunics" cited are priced at a day's pay or so... |
02-14-2020, 08:19 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
From the history I've read, it sounds as if the cost of clothing used to be really high. Before the spinning wheel was invented, it took five months to spin enough fiber for one suit of adult cloths, and another month to weave the yarn into fabric. After that, the fabric was cut in ways that minimized wastage (it was expensive!) and that limited the cuts of clothing. So figure an ordinary household could provide one new outfit for each adult member per year, at best. This improved with the invention of the spinning wheel, which could produce the same amount of fiber in one month—but it was still not cheap.
Look at the literature of the period. You see even noblewomen spending a lot of their time spinning and weaving, from the ancient world up to Sleeping Beauty. That wasn't recreation; it was economic necessity. Megan McArdle had a column a few years ago where she pointed out how few clothes people owned between the World Wars. And that was with the aid of industrial technology!
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
02-14-2020, 09:17 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
There's a Swedish proverb for something really expensive: "It will cost you your shirt."
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
02-14-2020, 04:37 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
Quote:
Nowadays we are used to a price for clothes in relation to wages that is, historically speaking, fantastically cheap
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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02-14-2020, 04:43 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
Well, that is a truly regrettable design choice.
Firstly, there is not a clear indication which loadouts are subject to this premium. Also for some reason it doesn't seem to have been applied to footwear. Finally, it yields some inconsistent results. For example, Qin cavalry and charioteers have statistically equivalent tunics, but one costs $98 and the other $468, but their statistically identical helmets have the same price to each other. P.S. To posters who have replied referencing historical clothing production, I apologize for not being clear that my question relates to the internal economics of GURPS rules. Last edited by Donny Brook; 02-14-2020 at 04:47 PM. |
02-14-2020, 04:53 PM | #9 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
The internal economics of GURPS rules stink on ice. The thing with wealth, income, TL, status, cost-of-living, adventure gear, settled lifestyles, and rank affecting status is a thorny tangle, and the decision to have relative prices unaffected by technological change is an irrecoverable disaster.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
02-15-2020, 03:54 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Cost of clothing in Low-Tech Loadouts
My understanding is that 'Sunday best' generally meant your newest set of clothes. They weren't of a different, more formal style, just newer. If you were well-off you might have enough sets that your 'best' was only used for church and a few other important functions until your worst set wore out and you got a new 'best' and your old 'best' just became your least worn day-to-day clothes. Everyone else, well they just hoped nothing horrible happened to their better set of clothes.
One reason for the shift from linen to cotton was that mechanising the harvesting and processing of cotton proved much easier than doing the same to linen.
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