Re: The Value of the English Pound in the 1890's

Dave Postles (pot@leicester.ac.uk)
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 16:56:39 +0000

One way of determining equivalent values is to compare the average daily wages
for an unskilled workman in both years. Today, someone making minimum wage and
working an 8-hour day earns $38.00 a day. I did this sort of thing recently
for the thirteenth century, using a record that a workman at a cathedral site
earned 3d per day. The resulting equation gives an enormous conversion factor,
but it checked out: the cost of basic transportation in 13c (standard old
horse) exactly matched the cost of a stripped down basic car in late 20c.

Carolyn Schriber
Rhodes College
schriber@rhodes.edu

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