In most western European countries it is necessary to distinguish between money of account, which was simply a conventional measure of value, and money of payment, that is to say the coins in which payments were actually made.
England used a silver standard. The unit of account was the pound sterling (£), equal to one and a half marks of silver. The pound was divided into twenty shillings (s), each of 12 pennies (d). There was a variety of silver coins in circulation, of which the most significant was the silver groat, worth four pennies sterling. There was also a gold coinage based on the noble, which was conventionally worth 6s 8d, but was rarely used. English coin maintained a stable metal content throughout this period.
France also used a silver standard. The French units of account were the livre tournois (l.t.), or pound of Tours, and the livre parisis (l.p.), or pound of Paris. Like the pound sterling, they corresponded to a conventional weight of silver. The pound sterling was worth five l.t. and four l.p. Both of these units of account were divided, like the English units, into twenty shillings (s, or sols) each of twelve pennies (d, or deniers). For most of this period, the main French coins in circulation were the silver gros and, for larger transactions, the gold franc. Between 1365 and 1385, these coins maintained a stable value in money of account. The gros was worth one s.p. The franc was nominally worth one l.t., in fact slightly less. English government accounts convert francs into sterling at six to the pound. In 1385 a new coinage was issued. The gold franc was replaced by the écu (or couronne, after the image on its obverse side), and the gros by the silver blanc, which remained the standard silver coin of France until the sixteenth century. These were worth less than their predecessors, and the gentle course of devaluation continued through the 1380s and 1390s.
In the duchy of Aquitaine the accounts of the English administration were reckoned in livre bordelais (l.b.) or pounds of Bordeaux, but this unit was rarely used for any other purpose. Traditionally, the pound of Bordeaux was worth the same as the pound of Tours, i.e. 4s sterling, but in about 1370 it was devalued to 2s 8d.
In Castile, the unit of account was the maravedi, which represented a value in silver equal to the silver dinar of the old Almoravid rulers of Andalusia and Morocco, last struck in 1170. A maravedi was divided into ten pennies (or dineros). £1 sterling was worth about 230 maravedis. The standard silver coin of Castile was the real, but larger transactions were generally reckoned in gold doblas. The metal content of the dobla was relatively stable in this period, and the coin was generally worth about 4s sterling, i.e. five to the pound.
The gold florin of Florence circulated widely throughout western Europe. This famous coin, first minted in 1252, was the nearest thing to an international standard of value in fourteenth-century Europe, but it had become discredited by imitations and forgeries. The genuine article was worth 2s 10d sterling.
In the text, sterling equivalents are generally given for sums reckoned in French, Castilian or Italian currency. Purchasing power is notoriously elusive, and modern equivalents even more so. Silver had become scarce throughout Europe, with the result that in countries operating a silver standard the value of the unit of account tended to rise. In England, a gallon of red Gascon wine cost 8d. A building craftsman, who had earned 3d or 4d a day in the 1350s, could expect 5d or 6d by the end of the century, roughly equivalent to the earnings of an archer. An ordinary warhorse generally cost about £10 in the 1370s, while a carthorse could be had for £1, about the same as half an acre of good agricultural land.