1 pound note 1 pound coin (or note in Scotland) 10 shilling (half-pound note) 50 pence 5 shilling (crown) 2V4 shilling (half crown) 20 pence 2 shilling (florin) 10 pence 1 shilling 5 pence 6 pence 2Vi pence 1 penny 2 pence
1 penny Vi penny 'A penny (farthing)
In recent years, the British government and people have been contemplating and debating a change even greater than the shift to the decimal system. Britain, a mem ber of the European Union, may adopt the EU's common currency, the Euro, and eventually see the pound itself become obsolete. More than many other EU-member countries, Britain has resisted this change: many people strongly identify their country with its rich commercial history and tend to view their currency patriotically as a national symbol.
Even more challenging than sorting out the values of obsolete coins is calculating for any given period the purchasing power of money, which fluctuates over time by
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A10 0 / BRITISH MONEY
its very nature. At the beginning of the twentieth century, 1 pound was worth about 5 American dollars, though those bought three to four times what they now do. Now, the pound buys anywhere from $1.50 to $1.90. As difficult as it is to generalize, it is clear that money used to be worth much more than it is currently. In Anglo-Saxon times, the most valuable circulating coin was the silver penny: four would buy a sheep. Beyond long-term inflationary trends, prices varied from times of plenty to those marked by poor harvests; from peacetime to wartime; from the country to the metropolis (life in London has always been very expensive); and wages varied according to the availability of labor (wages rose sharply, for instance, during the devastating Black Death in the fourteenth century). The chart below provides a glimpse of some actual prices of given periods and their changes across time, though all the variables mentioned above prevent them from being definitive. Even from one year to the next, an added tax on gin or tea could drastically raise prices, and a lottery ticket could cost much more the night before the drawing than just a month earlier. Still, the prices quoted below do indicate important trends, such as the disparity of incomes in British society and the costs of basic commodities. In the chart below, the symbol . is used for pound, s. for shilling, d. for a penny (from Latin denarius)-, a sum would normally be written .2.19.3, i.e., 2 pounds, 19 shillings, 3 pence. (This is Leopold Bloom's budget for the day depicted in Joyce's novel Ulysses [1922]; in the new currency, it would be about .2.96.)
.
circa
food and drink
entertainment
reading
1390
gallon (8 pints)
of ale, 1,5d.
gallon (8 pints) of wine, 3 to 4d.
pound of cinna
mon, 1 to 3s.
no cost to watch a cycle play
contributory admission to professional troupe theater
maintenance for royal hounds at Windsor, .75d. a day
cheap romance, Is.
1590
tankard of beer,
,5d.
pound of beef, 2s. 5d.
pound of cinna
mon, 10s. 6d.
admission to public theater, 1 to 3d.
cheap seat in private theater, 6d.
"to see a dead Indian" (qtd. in
The Tempest),
1.25d. (ten "doits")
play quarto, 6d.
1650
coffee, Id. a dish
chicken, Is. 4d.
pound of tea, .3
10s.
falcon, .1 1 5s.
billiard table, .2 5
three-quarterlength portrait painting, .3 1
pamphlet, 1 to 6d.
.
1750 1815 1875 1950 "drunk for a ounce of laudapint of beer, pint of Guinpenny, dead drunk num, 3d. 3d. ness stout, for twopence" (gin lid . shop sign in Hogarth print) dinner at a steak-ha m and potato dinner in a pound of beef, house, Is. dinner for two, 7s. good hotel, 5s. 2s. 2d. pound of tea, 16s. Prince Regent's pound of tea, dinner on rail- dinner party for 2s. way car, 7s. 2000, .12.000 6d. theater tickets, 1 admission to Covtheater tickets, admission to to 5s. ent Garden thea6d. to 7s. Old Vic theater, 1 to 7s. ter, Is. 6d. to 10s. 6d. admission to Vauxannual subscripadmission to admission to hall Gardens, Is. tion to Almack's Mada m Tus-Odeon cin( exclusive club), 10 saud's ema, Man - guineas waxworks, Is. chester, Is. 3d. lottery ticket, .2 0 Jane Austen's annual fees at tropical fish (shares were sold) piano, 30 guineas a gentleman's tank, .4 4s. club, 7-1 0 guineas issue of The Genissue of Edinburgh copy of The copy of The tleman's Magazine, Review, 6s. Times, 3d. Times, 3d. 6d.
.
circa 1390 1590 1650 a Latin Bible, 2 Shakespeare's First student Bible, 6s. to .4 Foiio (1623), .1 payment for Foxe's Acts and Hobbes's Leviailluminating a Monuments, 24s. than, 8s. liturgical book, .2 2 9s. transportation night's supply of wherry (whole day's journey, hay for horse, boat) across coach, 10s. 2d. Thames, Id. coach, .8 hiring a horse for coach horse, .3 0 a day, 12d. quality horse, hiring a coach for fancy carriage, .1 0 ' a day, 10s. .17 0 clothes clothing allow-shoes with buckfootman's frieze ance for peas-Ies, 8d. coat, 15s. ant, 3s. a year
.
1750
cheap edition of
Milton, 2s.
Johnson's Dictionary, folio, 2 vols., .4 10s.
boat across
Thames, 4d.
coach fare, London to Edinburgh, .4 10s.
transport to America, .5
worldng woman's gown, 6s. 6d.
1815 1875 1950 membership in cirillustrated ediissue of Eagle culating library tion of comics, 4.5d. (3rd class), .1 4s. Through the a year Looking-glass, 6s. 1st edition of Aus1st edition of Orwell's Nine- ten's Pride and Trollope's The teen Eighty Prejudice, 18s. Way We Live Four, paper- Now, 2 vols., back, 3s. 6d. . 1 Is. coach ride, out15- minute London tube side, 2 to 3d. a journey in a fare, about 2d. mile; inside, 4 to London cab, a mile 5d. a mile Is. 6d. palanquin trans-railway, 3rd petrol, 3s. a port in Madras, 5s. class, London gallon a day to Plymouth, 18s. 8d. (about Id. a mile) passage, Liverpool passage to midsize Austin to Ne w York, .1 0 India, 1st class, sedan, .449 .5 0 plus .18 8 4s. 2d. tax checked muslin, flannel for a woman s sun 7s. per yard cheap pettifrock, .3 13s. coat, Is. 3d. a lOd. yard
.
circa 1390 1590 1650 1750 1815 1875 1950 shoes for gentry wearer, 4d. woman's. 1 5s. gloves, falconer's10s. hat, gentleman's.8 suit, hiring a dressmaker for a pelisse, 8s. overcoat for an Eton schoolboy, .1 Is. tweedjacket, 6d. sports .3 16s. hat forwearer, gentry lOd. fine cloak, .1 6 black cloth for mourning household of an earl, .10 0 very fine wig, .3 0 ladies silkings, 12s. stock-set ofteeth, false .2 10s. "Teddy boy" drape suit, .2 0 labor/incomes hiring a skilled building worker, 4d 4d4d . .. a aa da dada y yy actor's daily wage during playing season, Is. agricultural laborer, 6s. week 5d. a price.3 2 of boy slave, lowest-paid sailor on Royal Navy ship, 10s. 9d. a month seasonalcultural laborer, week agri14s. a minimu m wage, agricultural laborer, . 4 14s. per 47hour week wage for professional scribe, .2 3s. 4d. a year + cloak household servant 2 to .5 a year + food, clothing tutor to noble- man's children, .3 0 a year housemaid's wage, .6 to .8 a year contributor to Quarterly Review, 10 guineas per sheet housemaid's wage, .1 0 to .2 5 a year shorthand typist, .36 7 a year minimu m income to be called gentleman, .1 0 a year; for knighthood, 40 to .40 0 minimu m income for eligibility for knighthood, .3 0 a year Milton's salary as Secretary of Foreign Tongues, .28 8 a year Boswell's allowance, .20 0 a year minimu m income for a "genteel" family, .10 0 a year income of the "comfortable" classes, .800 and up a year middle manager's salary, .1,48 0 a year income from land of richest magnates, .3,500 a year income from land of average earl, .4000 a year Earl of Bedford's income, .8,000 a year Duke of Newcastle's income, .40,000 a year Mr. Darcy's income, Pride and Prejudice, .10,000 Trollope's income, .4,000 a year barrister's salary, .2,032 a year