There is always some armor passed down in the castles of western aristocrats, and western royal families also particularly like to collect armor, this tradition is not without reason, because the reason for the formation of western medieval aristocrats is the armor of pit daddy.
Expensive armor was an important reason for the formation of the medieval aristocratic system, and the massive amount of "cheap" armor was the basis of the force of a unified empire such as China. In the era of cold weapons, whoever controls weapons and equipment such as armor will have power and can determine the political system.
Historically, the price of armor and other weapons is also closely related to the political system, around the 6th century BC, ancient Greek men popularized cheap bronze armor and linen armor, and heavy infantry became a military class for all the people in ancient Greece. The citizens of the ancient Greek city-states provided their own armor and volunteered to become city-state soldiers, and the city-state democracy became the most famous political system in ancient Greece.
When Roman soldiers had their own armor, the Roman system was a republic. When the Romans embarked on the path of providing armor from the state, the Romans built a vast empire. China's feudal dynasties, like the Roman Empire, had amazing armor production and equipment capabilities, and armor was not a particularly expensive luxury in ancient China.
The armor of the Qin Dynasty was once the standard for fines, the Qin Dynasty
The first is worth 1344 yuan, according to the grain price is almost equal to more than forty stones of grain, that is, the income of a grass-roots civil servant for one year, so the Qin Dynasty is punished two to three people (the crossbow is not shot, the lieutenant is the second class). In the Han Dynasty, due to the large-scale popularization of iron armor, the price of armor in the Han Dynasty increased to more than 6800 copper coins, which was equal to the salary of han dynasty soldiers for two years. During the Southern Song Dynasty, a pair of armor cost almost 35 yuan, which was equal to the annual income of an ordinary family. The cost of the Ming Dynasty to create 2456 sets of purple flower cloth armor is not much, the cost of various materials is 4,857,233 money, 3 minutes, 6 cents, 4 millimeters, 5,950 taels of silver, adding up to a total of 10807.33642 two, on average, a set of purple flower cloth face armor plus helmet is 4.4 two, that is, the price of one acre of land in the north at that time.
In general, as long as it is not a customized high-end goods, the price of Chinese armor is the income of ordinary people for one or two years. China's great unification dynasty monopolized the production of armor, and could provide tens of thousands of armor armed soldiers every year, which ensured the authority of centralized power.
In medieval Europe, because of the regression of handicrafts, the price of armor began to soar year after year. Early Middle Ages
Riding a pair of lock armor costs equal to one horse, helmets equal to half a horse, and a pair of legguards equals half a horse, when the price of a war horse was about 10 pounds, the annual income of a farmer was 3 pounds, and the full armor was equal to the peasant's income for six years. By the end of the Middle Ages, the price of armor was more self-indulgent, and Joan of Arc's armor during the Hundred Years' War was worth 100 livres, which was twice the annual income of French knights, and almost two hectares of land could be purchased in France.
Medieval armor was very expensive, but it was a valuable investment for the nobility. In the early Middle Ages, the main force of the Frankish kingdom was actually infantry, and the communal land of the villages was the mainstream. After the nobles monopolized the production of armor and weapons in their manors, they began to encroach on the land of the commune on a large scale, turning the military fortress owned by the royal family into a private castle. Because the nobles had a monopoly on armor and castles, medieval kings had to recognize their power. The English Saxon society of the early Middle Ages was very real, and they believed that whoever had a lock armor that could be passed down from generation to generation entered the small aristocratic class of Sain.
After the end of the Middle Ages, the price of armor was greatly reduced, mercenaries replaced knights as masters of the battlefield, and royal power overwhelmed the power of the nobility.