How much was a Roman soldier's salary in today's money? The answer changes depending on your yardstick.
Do you measure it in silver, bread, or days worked?
Comparing Past Prices and Salaries
How much would a Roman soldier's annual salary be today? We will learn about the yardsticks for comparison and the limits of calculation.
Time to read the text: about 6 min
The review questions are optional and not included in this time.
What you can read: the course opening and contents are free; the full text is for those who have purchased
After purchase, you can read the full text once your access starts.
How to Compare Old Prices in 3 Minutes
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A conversion that doesn't state its yardstick is an opinion disguised as a number.
The answer can change by orders of magnitude depending on the yardstick.
Totals tallied by counting official registers one by one are still used today.
16,886 tons of silver, 181 tons of gold
His work has lasted because he himself wrote, 'Smuggled amounts are not included.'
The lifespan of a number is determined by how its limitations are described.
Even the 'Price Revolution,' when converted to an annual rate, was just 1.1–1.4%.
Prices tripled or quadrupled over 100 years. A rate of change you wouldn't notice in a single year.
The military cost of the civil war was over 41.56 million yen. Figures vary considerably by source.
Tax revenue around the same time was about 48 million yen.
The decade from 1877
When prices rose, villages benefited, while towns of salary earners lost out.
Always ask: 'Prices for whom?'
The only things that got counted were those that passed through a counting system.
Smuggling, black market prices, the savings of those who never returned.
2In numbers
41,560,000yen
Military cost of the Satsuma Rebellion (over), compared to government tax revenue from the same period.
1.4%
The annual rate of increase for something to quadruple in 100 years.
3What would you do?
On TV, you hear, 'A Roman soldier's annual salary was XX yen in today's money.' Before you believe this number, what should you check first?
Pick one
The most recent price data
The important thing comes before that. The answer can change by orders of magnitude depending on whether the conversion was based on silver, prices, or days worked.
Which yardstick was used for the conversion
This is the first rule of this subject. There is no single correct yardstick. The only correct way to answer is to state the yardstick used.
A conversion that doesn't state its yardstick is an opinion that looks like a number.
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What you will understand after this course
- Can explain that converting ancient wages to modern values is a problem of "choosing the yardstick for conversion."
- Can discuss Hamilton's method of aggregation and its limitations as a model for cliometrics.
- Can develop an intuitive sense of rates through annualization (e.g., quadrupling in 100 years = 1.4% per year).
More about this course
Course number: F7
Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama
Beyond the text: 6 exercises · 1 coins · 4 readings · 1 references How reading times are calculated
You will also understand
- Can practice the method of explicitly stating what cannot be counted.
You can start this course without reading any other course.
Also worth reading, to see the connections (optional)
- Interpreting Coins from Weight and Purity
What you learn: From the weight and fineness of one coin you can calculate the metal actually present.
The text refers to this course in section 4.
If you want to know more about checking sources (optional)
- Is It Really True? Checking History
We re-examine the origins of money and famous anecdotes, comparing them with historical records and actual artifacts.
Assessment
6 exercises in this course (4 check, 1 compare, 1 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.
The 6 chapters of this course
- Annual Salary of a Roman Soldier — The Conundrum of ConversionWhether you measure in silver, in bread, or in days of labor, the choice of standard changes the answer by an order of magnitude.
- A Landmark in Aggregation — Hamilton's MethodComprehensiveness of primary sources, publication of figures, and stating limitations. Why a compilation from the 1930s remains a model today.
- An Intuition for Rates — Reading a Three- to Fourfold Increase in a Century as an Annual PercentageEven the "Revolution" becomes 1.1 to 1.4% when annualized. An intuition for rates allows for a reading that is not swayed by names.
- Calculating War Expenses — The Compiler Who Indicated the RangeMilitary expenses of over 41,560,000 yen "vary considerably depending on the source." The proper method is to quote this, including the explicit statement of the range.
- Whose Prices? — The Econometrics of DistributionInflation was advantageous for the villages and disadvantageous for the towns and the state. Beneath the average price level lie separate profit and loss statements.
- An Inventory of the Uncountable — The Practice of Acknowledging the Limits of MeasurementThe number of cases is the volume of description; finds reflect the bias of those who buried them; ledgers show only what is inside the customs house. An inventory of limitations protects measurement.
Readings (4)
- Seville, the archive of the official register Spain The price revolution 1503–1660
Section 2. A monumental achievement in methodology. An exemplar, including its explicit statement of limitations. - A town of Castile Spain The price revolution 1501–1600
Section 3. The meaning of an annual rate of 1.4%. The separation of name and velocity. - Tokyo, the Paper Money Bureau Japan The Satsuma Rebellion and inflation 1877
Section 4. The compiler who specified the range, and the citation for each range. - town and village Japan The Satsuma Rebellion and inflation 1878–1881
Section 5. Decomposing the average. Who profited and who lost?
References
- The 2014–15 Financial Crisis in Russia and the Foundations of Weak Monetary Power Autonomy — New Political Economy (Taylor & Francis)（2019） A political-economic analysis of currency crises (peer-reviewed journal). Includes Black Tuesday (2014-12-16).
The books and materials referred to in this course.
Read next
How the State and Taxes Support Money →What you learn next: Be able to accurately state the core proposition of Chartalism (the tax-driven theory of money).
Time to read the text: about 6 min ／ What you can read: the course opening and contents are free; the full text is for those who have purchased
Price
After purchase, the full courses, the illustrated books, every country’s story and the numismatics examination are open to you.
See the price →