How much ammo would make a gun worthwhile? I think at some point it becomes a game changer. 10 rounds is not going to make a difference. 10,000 may.
Earliest credible instances of people drinking coffee are from the 15th century, so my 20 pound bag of green Ethiopian coffee beans would be considered exotic in the extreme, followed shortly by my being burned at the stake when there was no more available without going to Africa and convincing people to start growing it.
Perhaps less; depend on how long the barrel lasts.
Yeah, drugs in general would be valuable. People didn’t live as long, then, so I suspect that antibiotics and painkillers would be more valuable than viagra.
You wouldn’t really have to explain. Just set yourself up as a doctor, and give them to your patients. You wouldn’t need many miraculous cures to get a solid reputation. And plain old penicillin would give you lots of miraculous cures, as all the bacteria were naive back then.
The tried to cut Hank Morgan’s head off.
My sister has my mother’s old one, damn her. Why does she always spoil my time-traveling fun?
This is not the standard explanation for those towers. They were actually status symbol houses built by rich families. From the San Gimignano website:
Here’s another one: a push reel mower. You could start a new trend where people have actual lawns instead of weeds all over, and everyone would want to keep up with the trend. Imagine the money you could make mowing lawns! (You just have to eliminate your competition - sheep!)
A fork.
Rich people who survived childhood lived about as long as people do today. And your target market is rich old guys.[sup]1[/sup] Find a few of them with ED and you can just about name your price. Then the main problem you would have is having enough supply.
[sup]1[/sup] Mostly royalty and upper nobility, but also bankers, traders and other bourgeoisie types.
Soap, just soap.
Several posters have mentioned antibiotics, but these are too complicated to make and to explain the workings of. Just bring back a large bag of bars of hand soap.
Show how the soap will get clothes and other items clean and try to explain to some nobleman that his people will get sick less often if they simply wash their hands with this cheap, remarkable product.
Then show that it is not magic, it can be made with only 3 easily obtainable items: lye from hardwood ashes, some animal fat, and a little water.
The nobleman will win battles against his enemies with a healthier army, his subjects will be more grateful for a longer life, fewer childhood deaths, cleaner clothes, and everyone will smell better.
Of course you will probably still get your head cut right the fuck off, but so will all of the other possible advances you could bring back with you. Because the thing about money is that someone always wants to take it from you. And going back in time with a valuable item that you might get rewarded for, without an army to protect you, is just going to get you killed. Probably by the person you sell this valued item to.
Anything of value that you bring back, and try to sell, will get you killed. People in power do not like competition. They remain in power as long as they are able to eliminate or control those who may challenge them. The OP places modern ethics and values upon a barbaric past.
How about a flashlight? No more fumbling around in the dark. Better light than a candle. And to eliminate any concerns of running out of batteries, it can be hand-cranked, like this one.
Soap is very very old. I’m no expert on England, but it was invented in ancient times.
I thought about taking, in order :
-knives, but despite being presumably of much better quality, I’m not convinced they would sell for a large amount of money.
-my low table (large, thick panel of perfectly transparent and perfectly flat glass in the shape of a drop. I’m pretty sure it would be a kingly piece of furniture worth a fortune). But maybe this is too specific an item to be a valid answer?
-my toolbox But would tools be worth much? Screwdrivers, for instance, would probably be useless without standardized screws, and a hammer is just a hammer.
-then I consired the pile of travel/geography magazines besides the couch. Presumably, every one of the superb pictures inside would be worth at least as much as a particularly remarkable illumination. But can I bring a whole pile of magazines?
Pretty much anything metal you could take back would be better quality than what was available in the fourteenth century. A large cast-iron frying pan would be a treasure in a wealthy household’s kitchen.
Also, I remember a science-fiction novel, The Cross-Time Engineer, in which a man finds himself transported to early medieval Poland just before the Mongol invasions, with only what gear he was carrying on a camping trip. A pack of sewing needles- incredibly fine, incredibly high-quality steel- were a worthy tribute to a high nobleman’s lady.
I think the ziplock bag idea is quite clever, and really in the spirit of the thread.
All my pens and felt tip markers, any hand mirrors, flashlights. All my picture books/photo albums (national parks, family vacations, zoos, anything with exotic visuals). Don’t think I’d want to take a chance on any erotica.
How about combs and brushes? And rulers? A stack of CDs.
A lot of things invented in ancient times went on hiatus during the Middle Ages. Even today, I’m not sure they use soap in France.
What about sugar?
A rather complicating matter in the OP’s question, one already mentioned in passing. The great famine occurs right in the middle of the time period suggested. If you dropped in when it was in full sway you could be pretty sure that nothing other than food would be of value. Indeed as a clear foreigner, your largest value might be as food yourself. The economy was ruined, and people were dying everywhere in numbers unheard of until the plague struck a few decades later. If you came in just after you would be presented with decimated (literally for once) population, struggling to rebuild. So there are probably three periods, each with different answers for the OP’s question.
Before the famine, during the famine, and the rebuilding phase after the famine. Forget trying to sell trinkets or novelties in the latter two phases. Possibly the most valuable thing I would have in my home right now is a bag of potatoes. Arrive in 1310 and you have enough time to turn that bag into a field of potatoes by the time the famine comes. Maybe.