Table 3.

Medicinal leech prices in different countries in the nineteenth century

Year(s)	Country of origin	Price	Value in British currency a	Source
1803–1815	France	7 pounds	7 pounds	Sawyer, ‘History of the Leech Trade in Ireland’, no p. 426.
After 1815	France	15 shillings	15 shillings	Sawyer, ‘History of the Leech Trade in Ireland’, no p. 426
1830–1850	British Empire	6 pence to a shilling	6 pence to a shilling	BNA, ‘English Leeches’, Kendal Mercury, 6 November 1852
1830–1840	Wallachia	25 para to 40 para	~2 pence	Ardeleanu, ‘The Danubian Leech Trade’, no p. 187.
1840	Ottoman Empire	50 gurush preying tax	~10 shillings	BOA, I.DH. 7/340, 26 Dhu al-Hijjah [1 March 1840].
1851	Ottoman Empire	12 para – May to September	Less than a pence	BOA, I.MVL 214/7082, 1 Ramadan 1267 [30 June 1851].
1851	Ottoman Empire	20 para – September to May	~1 pence	BOA, I.MVL 214/7082, 1 Ramadan 1267 [30 June 1851].

^aExchange rates are calculated based on the values in 1844, Şevket Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 191.

1 pound = 110 gurush

2 shillings = 11 gurush