Sources of Data Information

General

Series of prices are mainly derived from the second volume of Posthumus (1964), and are generally prices paid by institutions in Utrecht, Leiden, and Amsterdam. Additional sources are the registers of the broodyetting of Leiden (which was followed by the rest of Holland) and, for the period 1450-1550, prices paid by the Abbey of Leeuwenhorst (near Leiden), collected by Trudy de Moor (2000).

Individual series

• Rye bread

Between 1596 and 1800 prices are derived from Posthumus' L/s/ory of the Leiden Textile Industry (1936/39), which gives the prices of rye bread (of 12 lbs) according to the Leiden broodyetting. For the years before 1596, only price data from outside the western part of the country are available (Kuppers and Van Schaik 1981). This material could not be used for this study; therefore I assumed that before 1596 (that is before taxation on milling became very severe) bread prices developed in the same way as rye prices.

• Drink

For 1450—1740, this is the price of one vat of beer, on the basis of Posthumus (1964: no. 70, 172, 283, 368). These series have large gaps, especially during the 15th and 16th century and for interpolation, use was made of two series of ‘beer—vinegar' (no. 124) and ‘vinegar' (no. 223), since these products were often also made in breweries in which more or less the same inputs were used. Regressions showed a rather strong correlation between the development of prices of beer and of (beer) vinegar, which made it possible to use the vinegar series for interpolation.

After 1740, the wholesale prices of Surinam coffee, Buoy Tea, and Corn-Brandy (Posthumus 1943: no. 78, 80, 100) were substituted for the prices of beer (as a result of the declining consumption of beer no beer prices are available after 1740 because institutions apparently stopped buying the drink).

• Butter

(one vat) based on Posthumus (1964: 104, 180, 250) and De Moor (2000).

• Meat

(100 lbs) Posthumus (1964: 101, 203 (beef), 376), and De Moor (2000).

• Legumes

(Yellow) peas (last): Posthumus (1964: 98a, 99, 165, 265) and De Moor (2000).

• Fish

1450-1580: Herrings (one vat): Posthumus (1964: 36, 112, 208) and De Moor (2000); 1580-1800: Stockfish (100 lbs): Posthumus (1964: 113, 365).

• Potatoes

After r.1770, potato consumption grew rapidly in Holland, probably mostly at the expense of the consumption of vegetables/peas and beans. Potato prices for Leiden were published by Pot (1994: note, however, that in table 5 and table 6, p. 310, for the years 1792-1812 he has confounded prices of potatoes and of rye bread with each other).

• Textiles

1450-1540: Based on series of relative prices of linen and cloth compiled by Posthumus from Utrecht data, Posthumus (1964: LXX-LXXIII, no. 5 and 40). Especially for the period r.1570-1700, textile prices are rare and the series published by Posthumus show many large gaps. However, the available series show that textile prices were relatively stable; it therefore seems warranted to concentrate on the long-term changes and calculate ten year averages. The index for 1530-1800 is based on the series, which are presented in a table below. All data are from Posthumus (1964) and it concerns: (a) black cloth: no. 5 and fragmentary data on pp. 694-5; (b) red cloth: no. 8 and fragmentary data on pp. 694-5; (c) coloured cloth: no. 9, 291 and fragmentary data on pp. 694-5 and; (d) linen: no. 40, 292 and data from pp. 696-7. Those series have only one decade—1530/9—in common, which is taken as the basis of the textiles-index.

Table 7.A1 Relative and absolute prices of textiles, 1530/39—1790/99 (prices in guilders per el of 70cm, and index 1530/9=100)

of textile prices according to the prices on the Amsterdam exchange (see Posthumus 1943), the long-term evolution of textiles prices seems to be rather robust—short-term changes are however not captured by this series.

• Fuel

Price of peat (per scow/ton) from Posthumus (1964: no.

• Soap

Price of quarter ton of soap from Posthumus (1964: no. 134, 228).

• Sugar

De Moor 2000 (until 1560); Posthumus (1964: no. 177, 263).

• Paper

Posthumus (1964: no. 19, 273 and 389).

• Pepper

De Moor ( 2000); Posthumus (1964 no. 43, 133, 330).

Rent

No series of rent was available for the period 1450—1550; it was assumed that the price of rent moved with the rest of the cost of living. After 1550, the repeated rent index of Eichholtz and Theebe (1998) was adopted.