The combination of high prices and stagnant wages has always been seen as a crucial cause of the 1797 fleet mutinies. The eloquent and emotive appeals on behalf of struggling wives and families found in the sailors’ original petitions of grievance have drawn significant attention from historians, but little work has been done to evaluate or substantiate the impact of static sailors’ pay. For the first time, this chapter quantifies and contextualises the economic causes of the Spithead and Nore mutinies. The resulting picture is far more nuanced than traditional accounts have presented, and matters of pride and fairness rise in prominence to be identified as decisive motivations for mutiny. By this assessment, the absolute grievance of fluctuating purchasing power carries less causal weight for the mutinies than the relative grievance that the position of sailors had worsened compared to others. Most seriously, the army had received a pay rise in 1795, and the sailors’ sense of injustice grew with each month that passed without a similar wage increase for the navy. Hurt pride stirred men’s hearts more than financial injury.