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Samedi, 7 décembre 2013

The Value of Money in Dodger

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Catégories : [ Science ]

Terry Pratchett's Dodger is said to take place in the first quarter of the Victorian Era. We'll assume it is the year 1840. According to the National Archive's currency converter, 1 £ in 1840 is worth about 45 GBP in 2005.

Moreover, the same source indicates that with 100 GBP (about 2£ 5s) you could buy 11 days work of a craftsman wages in the building trade, 3 stones (42 lbs) of wool or 1 quarter (28 lbs) of wheat. As a reference, a person's daily needs in energy are equivalent to about 2 lbs of wheat (representing 2950 kcal according to Wikipedia).

These are the coins mentionned in Dodger:

  • Guinea: 21s = 252d (47.25 GBP)
  • Sovereign: 1 £ = 20s = 240d (45 GBP)
  • Crown: 5s = 60d (11.25 GBP)
  • Half-Crown: 2.5s = 30d (5.63 GBP) (about 1.5 lbs of wheat)
  • Shilling: 1s = 12d (2.25 GBP)
  • Sixpence: 1/2s = 6d (1.13 GBP)
  • Groat: 4d (0.75 GBP)
  • Thruppence: 3d (0.56 GBP)
  • Penny: 1d (0.19 GBP)
  • Half-penny: 1/2d (0.10 GBP)
  • Farthing: 1/4d (0.05 GBP)

A day worth of a craftman's wages is therfore 4s, which could buy 2.5 lbs of wheat or 4 lbs of wool.

[ Posté le 7 décembre 2013 à 18:06 | pas de commentaire | ]