From the law concerning the Dunsaete (Welsh mountaineers) (tenth century):—
7. A mare, 20 scillings (£1 2s. 6d.).
Present price, £25. Ratio 1 to 22.
8. A “swine,” 1⅗ scilling (1s. 10d.).
Present price, £1 10s. Ratio 1 to 16.
9. A sheep, 1 scilling (1s. 1½d.).
Present price, £2. Ratio 1 to 35.
10. A goat, ⅖ of a scilling (5½d.).
Present price, 15s. Ratio 1 to 33.
It will be seen from the above rough calculations how impossible it is to get any fixed proportion between the purchasing power of money in Anglo-Saxon times and in our own. As to one very important element, the price of grain, we have no satisfactory information; but from the records of later centuries (from the thirteenth onwards) it seems probable that, with frequent and violent fluctuations, it generally ruled relatively higher than the price of cattle.