What is £700 from 1863 worth now?

[stanmapstone]

"No single, precise, numerical answer is possible to the question: what is the modern value of a given sum of money at a particular time in the past?"
from "How Much is that Worth" by Lional Munby, the British Association for Local History. ISBN 0-85033-741-0

Stan

[ShaunJ]

My favourite is the beer index

Beer in a pub in the 1860's was around 2d or 3d a pint = say around 100 pints to the pound. So £700 then might have bought c. 70,000 pints, equivalent to around £150,000 today.

[silvery]

Looking quickly at various things, I suppose you could just add two zeros to things,

eg 2d a pint = 200p a pint.
      £1.75 = £175.00

quick conversion 

[ShaunJ]

No no Silvery - you have to multiply by around 200 using the beer index ( 2d is 2 old pence - there were 240 pence to the pound = say 1p per pint).

[silvery]

That scotches that one then   

[dennford]

Irrespective of how you try to figure it, you are talking about a sum that the average Joe could hardly dare to dream about.

A working man in those days could not even hope to ever save 100 pound - never mind 700.

A man could build a boat capable of sailing the globe with that amount.

It wouldn't have taken a genious to live a life of comfort and even multiply your capital.

Figures such as have been suggested (between thirty thousand and one million) would today only buy a house or two so any such comparison is to my mind "mindless"

Denn

[WHS1899]

Thank you everyone for all of your replies, it does give me some idea. £700 now does not seem so much,  and I just wanted an idea of how much £700 was worth then. Was it a huge amount or not? Seems it was! He was a very generous father. Now....I wonder where it all went.....?!!!

Beverley

[Siamese Girl]

It never does translate  - wages and housing costs were relatively much less in the past than they are now but food was comparatively more expensive - but it has never stopped me from trying to guess!

Carole

[WHS1899]

Thanks Carole! I may not ever know exactly how much £700 from 1863 is worth now, but at least I now know it was a lot of money then, which is really what I wanted to know. One son got £900, another £500, so he had a fair bit!
Beverley