Money

[Red Cat Jenny]

I am trying to get accurate currency comparisons for the GaOP.

I found this calculator, but it's a bit confusing. Trying to determine what in Brittish or Spanish currency of the time would be about what 1 dollar is today. Any help would be appreciated

Calculator

Found this as well, which answers part of the question..then again it's late and my brain is at half mast..

What did it cost in the 18th Century?

[blackjohn]

Do you mean like... how much purchasing power today's dollar would have back then? If so, I believe the current exchange rate is about $1.90 to the pound.

[Red Cat Jenny]

Just a daily monetary reference. As in what would be the 1700's equivalent of about $1,000 today? So if say, someone wanted to offer a tidy sum for passage on a ship (think bribe), or stole a purse worth quite a bit, let's say the period equivalent of stealing $10,000 today.?

Also with all the trading between countries (Spice, Molasses, Sugar, textiles, slaves, rum)etc, it's a bit confusing because I suppose you would have French, Dutch, Spanish and English currency floating about as well as possibly early American notes?

Was gold a different standard.. kind of like the Euro today where the countries monetary system didn't matter? EX: Pieces of eight or gold pieces of a standard value no matter where you were?

I know there were silver bars and such, but I am thinking more on the lines of portable cash/notes....

[kass]

I just read something about this in "Under the Black Flag"... Give me a minute to dig it out.

[hurricane]

Here's a resource I've used. It's fun and depressing. My favorite is a family friend who was bragging that he had bought his house in 1985 for $85,000 and that is was now worth $180,000 on the market in 2005. If you run the numbers here, you find that he only made a profit of a little more than $25,000 in actual purchasing power, thanks to inflation and cost of living variables. He wasn't very happy with me when I pointed this out over the dinner table.

http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/

Using their calculations $1 in 1774 would have the same purchasing power as $24.97 today. Or if you do it in reverse, 4¢ would have the same purchasing power as $1 today.

-- Hurricane

[blackjohn]

It's fun and depressing.

Which reminds me of the article I once read about the amount of free time we have today, versus 100 or 200 years ago. If the authors are to be believed, we really are gettin' the shaft.

[Red Cat Jenny]

Thank you gentlemen!

You have now enabled me personnae to proper theft!

[Patrick Hand]

about the amount of free time we have today

Well we have to work harder today, so we can afford all of those labor saving devices we have to own........

Sorry... back on topic........

[Fox]

The difficulty with trying to translate period sums into modern money is that there are so many ways of doing it, and each will turn out a different figure.

You can measure the value of money by inflation, by the wage of an equivalent period and modern labourer, by the purchasing power, or by other effects.

For example: on his circumnavigation Drake plundered something like £600,000 (IIRC), which measured by inflation works out at something like £20m today. On the other hand, measured by the wage of a naval seaman it's closer to £2bn. With her share of the profit good Queen Bess was able to pay off England's national debt, which today stands somewhere in the region of £400bn+. The plunder collapsed the bank of Spain, which today would take about £7.50 and a packet of smarties ( ). Take your pick.

If you want to know what passage in a ship ought to cost in 1700 the only way to work it out is to find out what it actually cost - backwards economics just don't really work.

[Fox]

For those interesting in international exchange rates in the GAoP allow me to summarise the "Royal Proclamation regulating the value of foreign coins (18 June 1704)"

Seville pieces of eight, old plate = 4s 6d

" , new plate = 3s 7d 1 farthing

Mexico pieces of eight = 4s 6d

Pillar pieces of eight = 4s 6d 3 farthings

Peru pieces of eight, old plate = 4s 5d (or thereabouts)

Cross dollars = 4s 4d 3 farthings

Ducatoons of Flanders = 5s 6d

Ecus of France, or silver Louis = 4s 6d

Crusadoes of Portugal = 2s 10d 1 farthing

Three guilder pieces of Holland = 5s 2d 1 farthing

Old rix-dollars of the Empire = 4s 6d

[Red Cat Jenny]

I looked up these rates,,and forgive my ignotance on this subject, but what does the *d* stand for?

Also in terms of buying passage, I need it more in terms of a sum of ..healthy persuasion.. due to a desperate situation rather than actual cost

[blackjohn]

d is pence, you know, denarii, not to be confused with p for pence!

[Cpt. Alva]

all i know is, that the basic monetary system in place at the time was all about weight, so exchange rates weren't as crucial between nations...

but that's not what you wanted to know, so I'll leave it at that....

[blackjohn]

Everything you wanted to know about British coinage but were afraid to ask.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_coinage

Am I having a deja vous, or have I posted this here recently???