Re: Value of Money
Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Wed, 4 Feb 1998 11:36:24 -0100
My dear Miss LaFleur,
Yours is a good question, but a hard one. The difficulty of relating
yesterday's money to today's has to do with the difference of ratios - some
things being relatively more expensive then, some relatively less - and the
wider scatter of income. Sam Weller is offered a wage of twelve pounds a
year, in my book "Pickwick Papers." Admittedly it is "all found": his
accommodation, food and clothing will be paid for. But consider that a cab
fare from St Martin le Grand to Charing Cross (about two miles) was a
shilling - a twentieth of Sam's monthly income.
You are right, though, in conjecturing that £500 was a handsome sum. It
would have been a good annual income for a middle-class family - and Pip was
still receiving money to pay for his regular outgoings. It was my intention
to show that Pip was being handsomely supported, that his expectations were
great indeed.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________
>Dear Mr. Dickens,
>
>As a teacher of *Great Expectations", I find that students are always
>inquisitive about the value of money. When Pip receives 500 pounds on
>his twenty-first birthday, we know this must be a lot of money. Do you
>happen to know how much that might be in the modern world?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Melanie LaFleur and English I at Many High School
>*************************************************************
>Melanie LaFleur
>Many High School
>100 Tiger Drive
>Many, LA 71449
>(318) 256-2114
>lafleur@cp-tel.net
>
>"Nothing's fair but everything counts." Colleen Dewhurst
>
>
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author