PDA

View Full Version : Sword cost in early industrial age?


Ludovic
03-15-2005, 09:58 PM
From what I know, a well-made sword was in medieval times was pretty damn expensive. A sword today is pretty cheap, but a well-made sword, one that can be used in real battles without breaking, turns out to be able the same price historically adjusted! (Which makes sense because the same amount of skill and labor is involved.)

But how much did swords cost in approximately the period 1750-1830? The time period where there wasn't much mass-production going on, yet the sword was still a vital part of the ever-growing standing armies of Europe? How could the armies afford to outfit their infantry and especially cavalry with them? Or were they less expensive due to availability of some industrial capacity along with some efficiencies of volume?

Can Handle the Truth
03-15-2005, 10:31 PM
IANA Sword expert, but my book on Arms and Armor says:
Every man with any pretensions to quality wore a sword in town; this practice continued until about 1780 when the sword, as an article of everyday wear, was generally abandoned. Considerable sums of money were expended on these delicate but deadly weapons...
I suppose since everyone had one, the economy of scale would apply.

Of the nineteenth century:
Infantry weapons were limited to musket and bayonet for the great majority of troops, although a few carried special swords... During the nineteenth century the bayonet was still regarded as a useful device... many had blades up to three feet long... this type was really an attempt to produce a sword-bayonet.

Gorsnak
03-15-2005, 10:35 PM
Infantry hadn't carried swords in any numbers for a good long time in this era, it's true, but cavalry was still armed largely with swords. No idea what they cost.