Many readers already know the price of textiles in the Middle Ages was very high, making the purchase of even a modest tunic made from woolen broadcloth a considerable expense. But did you know the cost of certain dyes could even exceed that of the cloth?


Particularly expensive was fine woolen broadcloth colored with the dye called kermes, which was produced with the crushed bodies of female insects of the same name. Imagine having the unenviable task of separating the males from the females?

One source claims that a length of such cloth in London in the early 14th century would have cost as much as a master mason would have earned in two years, nearly four times what the cloth would have cost had it been dyed with woad!