Expert: Joseph Logue - 1/15/2007

Question
Hi,
I just finished reading Jane Eyre. In it, she inherits 20,000 pounds, in the late 1840s. This is such a tremendous windfall that even after splitting it 4 ways with her relatives, she can live comfortable the rest of her life without having to work. How much do you think this would be worth in today's dollars? I'm a bit confused about how much money could have bought back then vs. now. Was it just a lot cheaper to hire servants and buy an estate and everything it took to live comfortably back then as compared to now?
Thanks, Jessica

Answer
Hello Jessica,

I had answered a question similar to yours a long time ago.  There is a Web site that makes these calculations (though in dollars); this would only be an approximation, however.  With that in mind, I went to:

http://www.westegg.com/inflation

and entered 20,000 for 1848.  In 2005 currency the sum would come to 396,413.75.  Notice that this sum is in dollars but it would be roughly the same; I don't think we could ever arrive at an exact figure.

Many authors, when writing historical accounts, will include something like a "Note on Currency."  In this, the author will approximate any given currency in today's money, but they often urge the reader to think of it (as Barbara W. Tuchman did) as just so many coins.  Meaning, money only has value to what people are willing to do for it or sell for it.  Servants are a good example of how this works.  While the 20,000 increased its value by twenty times, this does not mean that a servant girl's salary would have.  Because the servants lived on the estate, there was often a very small salary involved because food and lodging were provided (yes, not great food and shabby lodgings).  The way society has changed is just as pertinent to this discussion as is the way that the value of money itself has changed.

I hope this helps Jessica.  It is fairly astounding to think that 20,000 (dollars, pound, yen, etc.) had so much buying power -- the 400,000 it has become today would maybe buy you a fairly nice house and that's about it.

Thanks for visiting AllExperts.  Come back soon.

Sincerely,

Joseph Logue