Translated into pay for 90 days in ducats for the various types of troops, the list would look something like this;

Ducats                                      Soldier                                     

1,200                                       English Archer (longbow)                    

1,500                                       Italian Crossbowman                         

1,000                                       Common infantry                             

1,000                                       Archer                                      

1,500                                       Light cavalry                               

2,400                                       Mounted Man at Arms (squire or non GlossNob.htm         

                                            noble knight)                               

5,000                                       Fief Holder (knight leading 20-50           

                                            troops)                                     

40,000-100,000                              for the above group                         

12,000                                      Noble (lesser noble leading 100-500         

                                            troops)                                     

200,000-1,000,000                           for the above group                         

25,000                                      Magnate (leading 1,000-5,000 troops)        

2,000,000-10,000,000                        for group plus siege train, etc
             

2,000 per man average, although in practice the employers could get off with paying about half that by passing out IOUs that were never honored. This was a game in itself, and was one of the reasons kings, and other magnates who hired troops regularly, surrounded themselves with loyal and well paid bodyguards. There were threats and assassination attempts by unpaid soldiers, especially higher ranking ones owned hundreds of thousands of ducats.

10,000-Siegeworks Master

1,000-Siegeworks Artisan

155,000 Merchant Ship (with crew)

Ships in the period "averaged" 60-100 tons. Assuming a "typical" vessel to be about 80 tons, quarterly rental would have been something like 155,000 ducats.

A fully equipped war galley, such as Venice, Leon, or some of the other Mediterranean states owned could rent for about 385,000 ducats a quarter.

In both cases crew costs are included. The merchantman would have had a crew of about 30 men, the war galley at least 100.

Fleets could be concentrated fairly quickly. On 10 June 1340 Edward II issued a call for ships. He had in hand on that date 40 vessels at Harwich. At the end of 10 days he had an additional 10 at Harwich, plus 200 at London.

Except at Sluys (23 June 1340) and Damme (June 1213), fleets were small, 100 vessels being rare, and 50 or so the norm. At the two named battles the English had 250 and 200 ships respectively, while their foes had 500 and 400.

Capacity seems to have depended upon circumstance. For transport purposes it seems that most ships could carry only about one passenger per ton (for our purposes c. 60-80 men, as our "average" ship is 60-80 tons). But it was not uncommon to cram lots more men aboard for battles: there has been occasional mention of 400 men.

Also note that the earliest recorded mention of cannon on ships was in 1336, aboard an English ship operating in the Channel and carrying four rather primitive pieces. It would be two centuries before ship building and cannon technology matured sufficiently to make the combination cost effective.