Construction of and sources for price and wage series, price and wage indices and the base period used to compute them, components of the composite price series, identification of skilled and semi-skilled workers to whom wages were paid, and other issues are discussed above on pp. 123–30. See Table 5.1 for weights and contents of components of the composite price series, units of measure, and average prices during the base period 1457–71. Nominal wages during the base period averaged 8d. and 5d. a day for skilled and semi-skilled workers respectively. Actual prices and wages from 1490 to 1609 may be computed using indices in this appendix and base period prices and wages: actual price or wage = (price or wage index times base period price or wage) divided by 100.

The real wage series was computed by dividing a weighted average of 60 per cent skilled and 40 per cent semi-skilled nominal wage indices, approximating the distribution of skilled and semi-skilled workers among London's freemen, by composite price indices. The semi-skilled wage series contributes 40 per cent to the weighted average because it consists chiefly of wages paid to journeymen (see pp. 128–9 above) who accounted for about 40 per cent of the men in most companies (see pp. 242–4 above).

Indices in Table A3.1 are rounded to the nearest integer and summary statistics computed from them may differ slightly from summary statistics computed from more precise indices and reported in Tables 5.2 through 5.6.