People Are Cheap, Things Are Expensive
Gamemasters who set their campaigns in any pre-industrial period frequently fail to understand that everything is handmade—including tools and the tools to make tools. Even in places with high population, the vast majority are primarily engaged in producing food. The number of artesans in a population is always low. Manufactured items could be stockpiled in great amounts, but that took much time (i.e., years) and dedicated effort—usually at the expense of other things being deprioritized.
Artesans can command high wages, but that is far outstripped by the value of what they make. Their small numbers get lost in the sea of poverty-wage labor. What they have made outlives them—possibly by centuries, sometimes.
Even animals are worth more than people. A dead cow is a greater loss than that of a peasant, let alone a horse. Sad but true.
In such a society, people are cheap while things are expensive. Among other things, the equipment lists in games should better reflect this.
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