Used Clothing in the Sixteenth Century

In the United States, once an article of clothing or a toy is taken out of the store, it depreciates by about 98%.

It was not always so. Here are the findings of Andrew Gurr, who writes on Shakespeare.

A pair of silk stockings might cost £2 or £4, depending on the quality and purchaser. A woman's gown might cost anything from £7 to £20 or more. The Earl of Leicester* paid £543 for seven doublets and two cloaks, at an average cost for each item rather higher than the price Shakespeare paid for a house in Stratford.

I got this paragraph from a wonderful book by Ann Jones and Peter Stallybrass called Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory.

They detail the value of used clothing in the Renaissance marketplace. An amazing reminder of relative value and shifting value(s).