P.O.
Box 5343
Farmington,
NM 87499
(505)
326-5985
(561)
828-7993 fax
ANA Member - R 1178096
Email MS Coins
Our Commercial Site
YES! We are buying! Email
us
to receive our current buy list
Submit
Your FREE
Classified
Ad To Our Site!
Submit
Your URL To Our
FREE
For All Links Page!
Give a Friend a Gift!
Send
A FREE E-Greeting Card!
Pick
Up Your E-Greeting Card!
Click here
to get or file reports on MS Coins
Click here and see our
weekly specials!
Check out our awards!
VISIT THESE COOL
SITES
Egghead.com
Surplus Home Page |
Costs and Wages in Great Britain
I've made an attempt here, through my readings, to provide collectors with
some example of what people living in Great Britain made and spent during
the years. I think this is important so that, when holding a 3 pence or
shilling, you can see what that coin would have bought or represented to
the person holding it. I hope you enjoy the information I've put here.
To me, the beauty of the coin is enhanced by seeing it in the context of
yesteryear. Enjoy and, as always, if you have something to correct or further
expand upon, please feel free to contact
us.
The information here has been gleened from The English:
A Social History, 1066-1945 by Christopher Hibbert, copyright 1987.
Wages Per Year:
5 Pounds - Head housemaid, 1761
7 Pounds - Head footman, 1761
22 shillings, 6 pence (per week) - Pickman for the canals work groups
building the canals for the new train rails
24 shillings (per week) - Shoveller for the canal work groups
33 shillings (per week) - skilled men such as bricklayers and masons
for the canal work groups
11 - 14 Pounds - Housemaid, 1850's and 1860's, 12 - 22 Pounds in 1894
11 - 17 Pounds - Cooks, 1850's and 1860's
20 Pounds (per week) - Singer at the Canterbury Music Hall
1000 Pounds (per week) - Sarah Bernhardt at the Coliseum Variety House
18 Pounds - Lady's-maid, 1865
12 Pounds - Scullery Maid, 1865
17 Pounds - Nurse-maids
50 Pounds - Cook, 1865
40 Pounds - Coachman, 1865
60 Pounds - Valet, 1865, 70 Pounds in 1894
90 Pounds - Gardener, 1865
Duke of Bedford - 300,000 Pounds (about $90 million US)
Duke of Westminster - 250,000 Pounds (just from London properties)
17Shillings, 6 Pence - average weekly earnings for farmworker in 1906
Costs in the 1850's
Seat in the body of the Canterbury hall, a popular tavern concert room
- 6 pence
Seat in the gallery of the Canterbury - 9 pence
Costs in the 1860's
Gallery seat at South London Palace of Varieties in Lambeth - 3 pence;
balcony and stalls - 1 shilling
Good seat plus a five-course meal at the Oxford Music Hall - 2 shillings,
6 pence
Flat rate fare for the City and South London railway in 1890 - 2 pence
Electic Victoria car whose driver sat on a platform above the rear
wheels looking over the heads of the 2 passengers and could travel 40 miles
on a charge at a max speed of 12 miles per hour - 570 Pounds
Costs in 1906
Rent - 1 shilling 6 pence
3 lbs. of Sugar - 5-1/2 pence
1/2 lb. of tea - 8 pence
1-1/2lbs. of butter - 1 shilling 6 pence
1 pint of beer - 2 pence
2 oz tobacco - 6 pence
This was interesting to read so even though it has nothing do
do with prices, I HAD to put it in:
"Although considered quite fast enough by most pedestrians,
a speed of 12 miles an hour -- raised in 1903 to 20 miles an hour on roads
deemed suitable -- was thought not nearly fast enough by most motorists,
many of whom regularly exceeded it. Among these was Edward VII who in 1898,
while Prince of Wales and staying at Highcliffe Castle in Hampshire, had
been driven at 40 miles an hour in a Daimler by a fellow-guest. When he
had his own cars, among them a 65 horsepower Mercedes, the King liked to
be driven much faster than that. Unaffected by the traffic laws of his
realm, he often congratulated himself upon having raced along the Brighton
road in 1906 at 60 miles an hour. Other motorists had to grow accustomed
to being overtaken by a large car, without number plates but with the Royal
Arms on the door panels, in which a bearded figure sat on the blue Morocco
back seat, smoking a large cigar, as he urged his chauffeur on with impatient
gestures and gruff commands to ever greater speeds."
Amazon.com Related Readings
The Anglo-Saxons (Penguin History)
by James Campbell, Eric John, Patrick Wormald List: $26.95 Our Price:
$21.56
You Save: $5.39 (20%) ORDER
BOOK
Rob Helmerichs (rob@minn.net) from Minneapolis, Minnesota , 03/03/98,
rating=9:
The best introduction available to Anglo-Saxon history.
Written by three of the leading historians of the Anglo-Saxon period,
this is easily the best introduction to its subject. The writing is authoritative
yet accessible, giving a good idea not only of the course of Anglo-Saxon
history, but also of the problems with the sources and of disputes within
the historical community. Only in the final chapters, by Eric John, do
major historical disputes sometimes go unnoted; one would not know, e.g.,
from his discussion of Harold Godwineson that some historians greatly respect
Harold, or that not all historians believe that Edward the Confessor firmly
intended William of Normandy to succeed him. To his credit, however, John's
presentation here is more orthodox than elsewhere (for his unadulterated
views, see his contentious and delightful Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England).
The physical presentation of the book is far more attractive than is
usual for textbooks. It is in a large format and lavishly illustrated,
including a number of color pictures, and has several good maps of England
(although it is curiously lacking in maps illustrating the European context
of English history, and it could also use genealogical tables to help sort
through some of the myriad characters). The bibliography is good up to
1981, the original date of publication, but unfortunately it was not updated
when Penguin reissued the book, and thus cannot take account of the
scholarship of the past two decades. It also has, regrettably, "secret"
endnotes at the back of the book, not signaled in the text, which often
lead the reader to primary source material and some secondary discussions;
it is well worth the reader's effort to seek out the endnotes periodically.
In short, The Anglo-Saxons is highly recommended for anybody seeking
a general introduction to the history of this period. My highest praise
is that when I taught a university course on Anglo-Saxon history, this
is the only book I considered for a main textbook.
The Aristocracy in Europe 1815-1914 by Dominic Lieven Our
Price: $17.00 ORDER
BOOK
Lieven (Russian politics and history and political science, London
School of Economics) uses English, Russian, German, and French sources
to examine the lifestyles and political roles of the English, Russian,
and German aristocracies from the defeat of Napoleon to the outbreak of
the First World War. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Email us any information
you think is pertinent to either correct or round out the writings here
and I will be more than happy to post it. Thanks for reading! |
