Historical prices cannot really be converted into equivalent amounts in present-day currencies. The usual way to compare prices is thus to take a common commodity for which there are records of prices over the centuries. One such item is beef. One pound of beef, that is say about half a kilogram, cost, according to the records of the Bürgerspital (Burghers’ Almshouse) in Vienna, around 0.7 kreuzer in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the middle of the sixteenth century the price was some 2 kreuzer and in the middle of the seventeenth approximately 3 kreuzer. The records of the Marktamt (Market Office) in Vienna give the price in the middle of the eighteenth century as around 5 kreuzer, and as around 30 kreuzer in the middle of the nineteenth century. However, it is extremely difficult to make accurate comparisons for the nineteenth century.
The following table shows the approximate amounts of beef that could be bought on the market for one kreuzer and one gulden respectively from the mid-15th century to the mid-19th century. 60 kreuzer = 1 gulden.