Recalculate prices and salary into gold. You will discover that things are more or less the same and stable. Shoemaker in 15th century made similar money as today.
Given that the gold price has increased by a factor of 8 in the last 20 years it's hard to see how that could be true. Even if it happens that there's an equivalence between today and 1450, a shoemaker in 2000 would be earning 8 times more.
EDIT: To put it another way, over the last 20 years the Dollar, Euro and Pound have all approximately averaged out to their target 2% inflation rate. Prices in gold terms have averaged to 9% deflation per year. Since 9 > 2, gold is less stable than modern fiat currencies.
EDIT: To put it another way, over the last 20 years the Dollar, Euro and Pound have all approximately averaged out to their target 2% inflation rate. Prices in gold terms have averaged to 9% deflation per year. Since 9 > 2, gold is less stable than modern fiat currencies.