FTSE and NYSE index charts going back 30 years?

S&P500 back to 1871 here -

Daytona

"Chris Game" wrote

A factor of 600 would be equivalent to inflation of (say) around 2% per annum for 200 years then 5% per annum for 50 years. [Probably realistic for the last 50 years; I'm unclear on average inflation much before this!!]

It's hard to compare prices except for basic things like bread. A factor 600 would make a farthing worth about 60p now, which sounds a bit much to me, but maybe not too far out, say a penny for a pint of beer. There wasn't much inflation until the last hundred years or so. Land prices are very hard to compare, agricultural land isn't worth much now but was the main source of wealth in 1750.

Robert Beckmans 'The Downwave' attempts to use historical data to prove his theories on economic cycles and has many references & graphs of basic commodities, for instance since Stephen mentioned bread; the price of wheat during the 18th Century was between 20-140 averaging at about 40 in 1700, dropping to 30 in 1750 and ending the century at about 90. All units are shillings per Winchester quarter - doing a search on that gives some more sources of historical data which could act as a starting point -

was £22/acre in 1770 and £1425 in 1979 (the latest figure on the chart) inflation adjusted figures are £42 for 1770 & £1400 for 1979. There's a large bibliography in the book, some sources for other historic price charts mentioned which may be worth investigating - Prof. Joseph Kitchin Peter Aston Prof. Joseph Schumpeter Kondratieff Jugler Kitchin Edwin Dewey Prof W L Crumm

hth

Daytona

Thanks, I read that a while ago but it's a useful reminder and there's usually a copy in the public library - strangely it doesn't get taken out much!

I think the difficulty is in getting some picture that applies to life as lived then; was land for instance less valuable then as it was a less productive asset, or is it relatively less valuable now because we don't need so much of it?

And what were housing rents in the 18thC.? I suppose literature might give a clue...?

Try Charles Dickens, and Mr Micawber's rent.

Wrong century, of course.

You can start from the fact that hardly anything we can buy now even existed then, and a lot of things that we now buy wouldn't have been bought with money, e.g. a lot of people kept animals, made their own food and furniture etc, and bartered for other things. Anything which needed to be transported any distance cost a lot more, and exotic things like spices were extremely expensive.

You also have to ask what your basic normalisation is going to be. It used to take pretty much full time labour by the majority of the population to grow enough food, whereas now agriculture is something like 4% of GDP and would be quite a bit lower if we had a free market. With mechanised farms the labour cost of growing wheat, say, is tiny. If you want comparability in those terms you'd need to look at something like hand-made furniture (although even there people use power tools). There's also the question of quality, I doubt that people now would pay anything at all for C18 peasant-grade food.

ISTR Jane Austen's books have comments about incomes, although for the wealthier end of society.

Nostell Priory have good records of the prices charged by Thomas Chippendale for the furniture he supplied to the house in the 18thC. One of the best examples is a huge desk/library table which cost UKP70 in 1770 or thereabouts - this is one of the reasons for doubting the 600 multiplier I mentioned before, 40KUKP deems too much in today's money, leaving aside any rarity/heritage premium.