The reason this is in Game Development is because this is something I will have to figure out for my game.
The “Campaign Medals” will be made from scratch.
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I’m not an economy guy nor a smith, so this is what can I say.
There’re many factors to include, but this all depends on your worldbuilding. What materials are the medal made of, and how common? If your country/kingdom has a means to mass-produce them, the cost can be significantly lower. The design and intricacy of the medal also need to be accounted.
Just for a fun reference, in medieval Europe (most likely mid-era), a full-plate armor is worth more than a peasant house and all its household. However, a gambeson is considered cheaper that it’d probably is the same equivalent of nowadays average motorcycle.
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In my WiP’s universe, a well-made(most guns in my WiP are crap) gun is worth more than a serf household, easily.(And any piece of full plate armour was worth more than a peasant household.)
For rankers, tin, for NCOs iron, for junior commissioned officers, silver, for senior commissioned officers, gold, for the highest ranks of the campaign, titanium.
It does, and labour costs almost nothing(the empire in question uses slave labour in factories)(the labour costs will be for the officer medals, which will be made by artisans).
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Could you tell us how any why the definite number is important?
If it’s to have someone be angry about how ‘all that money’ was spent on such nonsense instead of food and housing etc… writing ‘all that money’ will do.
Okay so mind you this will be a rough estimate and could be wrong. I am going to base some of it off of the British Royal Army. I also went with 60k. I said there will be 75 battilons and 4 company’s in each battilon. There are 3 NCO in each company. There will be 4 JC in each battilon and 1 commissioned officer in each battilon. And 1 general in the army. So there are 59399 rankers 225 NCO 300 Junior officers 75 commissioned officers and 1 general.
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If you are using the British Army as a reference NCOs range from Corparal or Bombardier if its Artillery, Sergeant/ Sergeant Major or Warrent Officer. Some regiments have Lance Corparals and Sergeants and there is also the Colour Sergeant.
Enlisted men out number NCOs who in turn out number the officers.
The Goldblood Empire (The state the PC is heir to) spends money on far more frivolous things than campaign medals without protest.
So the Empire can be charged for it. There will be a budget variable.
Note that the Goldblood Empire still sells commissions. Junior officers also count as “commissioned officers”.
The Colonial Formation of the Imperial Army and Navy has this many men:
540000 rankers
60000 NCOs(half of them are Corporals)
6000 Commissioned Officers (5000 junior, 1000 senior)
80 Colonels-of-regiment
12 Generals-of-brigade
1 General-of-formation
Edit: Link to my WiP so you can all see what I’m going on about. The Empress' Demand, formerly Feudalism Simulator 2019: (CANCELLED) - #56 by KuriosIasoun
Then just take the adverage weight of a medal is 28.73 grams so take that and times it by amount that is needed and then find the cost. I don’t know what currency you are using.
I caulcated it and my eough estimate is it would cost $8,534,722.01 what cost the most overall is the tin due to how much was needed.
That’s kind of what I was expecting, in crowns(the Goldblood currency) that would be 14224 crowns with the exchange rate of $600 to a crown.
I’m not not if you wanted an economics info, but if we assume your country is fully dedicated to the military, built off the backs of exploited poor and slaves…
Nazi Germany spent 75% of national income (highest amount) on military spending during 1944, and over a roughly 6 year period had revenue of 61 billion and expenditure of 101 billion.
This may be helpful in explaining how the state can afford expensive guns and stuff in your story (basically, they cant in the long term and are relying upon futire returns based upon captured land, and dont care about the future ramifications (and convince others not to) due to the war going on.
They’re not in the position of the Nazis, in that they don’t have to fight a war on three different fronts, against determined and well-written enemies. So military expenditure will be lower than them.
They can. They put a great deal of effort and money into making their massive army(1.2 million soldiers, in a country of 48 million where 60% of them are slaves) sustainable.
The war isn’t absolute. They’re not fighting on Goldblood land, and most serfs(the 60% slaves I mentioned earlier) don’t even know there is a war.
Apart from personal expenditure on frivolities, they are, but that’s more to do with the fact that their empire runs itself.
Slightly off topic, but I am a studying economist, how do they ensure a high amount of soliders (1.2 million/ 2.5%) in the long term whilst remaining stable?
Are the people conscripted the least productive/ unemployed people, or are the slaves bascially living like uh… slaves… in order to fund the war spending and such?
And do the state own all aspects of the military, and are any other indistries nationalised, or is it left to provate enterprise?
To spare some of the costs, the medals could be produced with a cheaper Material and only be coated in the expensive ones. Common practice in the past. Since such medal we’re objects of status and not meant to be sold.
Go to my WiP thread and read the loredump on serfs. The Empress' Demand, formerly Feudalism Simulator 2019: (CANCELLED)
That’s actually a very complicated answer, in that this is still a very feudalistic state. Serf levy makes up most of the vassals’ soldiery, but the Imperial Army is composed entirely of freemen volunteers (there are not many jobs for freemen, with serfs filling up the manual labour industries, so the Empire only needs to spread the word that’s there’s pay, and three hot meals a day in the Imperial Army and they’ll sign up of there own accord). The force that’s going to be possibly awarded these campaign medals are all Imperial Army however, and the Imperial Army is far more well-armed and trained than serf levy(hardly any of them have guns, or any weapon that isn’t a repurposed tool).
Basically the Empire owns two million serfs. A quarter of those work in state-owned factories(A very high level of them). The rest work in the fields.
It helpes that they’re one of the only states with functioning currency, and an actual military. So there is no world market, nor can the currency drop in value.
It absolutely can drop in value. Currency value means “what can I get for this”, not “how many [other currency] can I get for this”. If people feel like the state currency can’t buy as many goods as it used to, then the currency’s value will drop regardless of whether there are any competing currencies. Printing money to pay an extremely large standing army is one way that could happen; from what I can tell, that’s a big part of what happened to Rome.
As for your original question, I think in a feudal setting campaign medals would probably be struck from the melted-down spoils of a particularly lucrative war. Otherwise they’re not the kind of thing a feudal state could easily afford.
They have mass-production and industry, it’s just that they still operate in a feudal fashion.
There isn’t much currency out there, because most people still barter. Nobles and former soldiers are really the only ones who use it.(Serfs can’t touch money, and most freemen get paid in room and board, and freeholders trade food to the local lords in exchange for supplies.)
I’m no economist, but as I understand it there’s only so far a feudal barter-driven economy can go. You need a large consumer class to make mass production worthwhile, and you need them paying in currency for it to be practical to make any money off of it. If most of your population either can’t touch money or doesn’t need to, why bother setting up a huge factory to produce what you want to sell?