Seeing Andreas' attempts to field a vast pike force for his Hapsburg-Netherlandish army elsewhere on the forum reminded me of this article (http://james.wardware.com/J-Europ-Econ-Hist.pdf) I found on my early sixteenth century wanderings. A bit out of period, it does start just outside our usual time frame and may reflect some light on late 15th century practice. Hope it may be of interest.