The trading and commodifying of cats

In medieval Wales, trading cats was pretty, pretty easy. Especially in north Wales, where its laws, “Dull Gwynedd” only specify that to trade a cat, it must:

Dull Gwynedd

Which is a pretty generous ruleset for the trading of a cat, but you do you, Dull Gwynedd! But in other places, trading was more restricted, with some rules being downright absurd, but it’s medieval Wales, what do you expect?

Dull Dyfed

In southwest Wales, the laws, “Dull Dyfed” were a tad bit more restricted, with cats needing to meet the requirements of Dull Gwynedd, but also:

Huh? Why mustn’t a cat wail at the moon? Isn’t that meaningless? Aww, is little Hywel scared of cats wailing at the moon? Aww! But this isn’t the most restrictive of the three laws, that would be

Dull Gwent

In south wales, the laws named “Dull Gwent” are very restrictive, needing to meet all requirements of Dull Gwynedd and Dull Gwent, while also needing to:

Alright, these laws are getting meaningless! I get Dull Gwynedd and sometimes Dull Dyfed but this is just absurd? Good tail? Burn marks? Does that matter that much to you, Hywel? They should call you Hywel the picky one! Haha!

Monetary value

So, does your cat meet the requirements of the province you’re living in? Yes? And you want to know the price of your little feline? Okay, sure! All of these laws agree on the price, so there are no specifics on that. One adult cat is worth four “ceinog”; the currency of “ceinog” was Wales’s currency at the time. What a ceinog was worth, I couldn’t possibly comment on. The closest frame of reference I have is that a cat in the 80s could be bought for ~2100kr (that’s Swedish currency, me living in Sweden and all), one kronor is basically equal to 0.1x where x is the number of usd. Taking this into account:

0.1x for x = 2100:
    0.1 * 2100 = 2100 / 10 = 210

meaning that 2100kr is equal to 210usd. Working from this thesis, we can calculate the value of a ceinog using an equation:

4c = 210
4c/4 = 210/4
c = 52.5

We can say that if prices were fair (which they were probably not) one ceinog would be worth ~$53, with one cat costing 4c. This is all meaningless, though, since you can just compare it with the animals of its time. One cat is equal to

One interesting thing is that Gwynedd – and only Gwynedd – specifies the value for a cat either not adult or non mouse-catching. In their laws, one kitten (a cat that has “not yet opened its eyes”) is worth 1c, then 2c. Only when (or if) it catches mice it becomes worth 4c.

Returning a cat

If a cat has any “defection” (defection being used as unwanted trait), the seller is obligated to return… One third of the price? Uhh… What? I understand that if your cat suddenly starts “wailing at the moon” you need compensation. But one third? Why not one fourth or maybe one half?

“Dumnagual, which is your REAL first name to be clear, you sold me a defective cat.”
“Gwenhwyvach, which is your REAL first name to be clear, what do you mean?”
“Dumnagual, do you not understand? My cat just… WAILED AT THE MOON”
“Gwenhwyvach, I didn’t”
“YOU FRAUD, YOU ABSOLUTE SGLYFATH, WHICH IS A REAL INSULT IN THE WELSH LANGUAGE. YOU TWMFFAT, WHICH IS A REAL INSULT IN MY TIME!”
“Gwenhwyvach, which is your real first name, what can I do to repay you?”
“Dumnagual, return pay me back one third of the price!”
“Which is..?”
“4 / 3, so like 1.3333333…”

Next chapter: Cat products

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