| Multiple reasons. Along with reasons given by other replies... During that era, they did not have a monetary economy. It's hard for us to imagine, but most of the things produced by the economy were simply traded (bought/sold). Most food was produced and consumed by the farmers. Most buildings were erected/maintained by the inhabitants. Etc. Most people were peasants and lived near subsistence level and a large fraction of their surplus was confiscated as rent (i.e. taxes) by the nobility. Most rent was "in-kind". That is, paid for in grain, pigs, and labor. Not to say that peasants didn't buy/sell things for coin, they most certainly did. But that was a minority of their economic activity. Only the nobility and towns/cities had a monetary economy. But those were a small fraction of the total economy. Second, there was very little per-capita economic growth during these eras. Barring notable exceptions like the plague and its aftermath. But what you do see is high volatility in prices. How is this possible in conjunction with the fact that most production was not even traded? Simple: prices are set at the margins. Inflation as a concept didn't really mean much to most people of that era since most people were peasant farmers who didn't participate much in the monetary economy. And even in the cities, monetary wages were only a fraction of total compensation. For example, most servants got room & board as well. Apprentices too. Long story short, the european middle ages was a very very different economy and many modern economic concepts are only very roughly analogous. Even legal concepts of ownership was sort of different back then. |