Money, money, money

[elaby]

Victorian currency (shillings, crowns, guineas, etc) appeals to me immensely. I'm not sure why; the decimal system seems much easier to remember. There's just something about the pre-decimalization terms that sound lyrical to me. Anyway, because I'm a geek and the idea fascinates me that in the 1860's you could buy an umbrella for twice what a milk-woman made in a week, I wanted to figure out how much Watson's pension is at the beginning of A Study in Scarlet.

I've done some math here; beware.

Watson's pension in 1881 is 11s 6d* a day, which comes out to 3£ 17s weekly. In around 1860, his weekly income would buy a frock coat, or a water-closet (without the installation fees, I can only assume). The disparity between these in comparison to today boggles me.

So, if I did the math right, that means Watson makes 209£ 14s 8d a year. Not bad, but not great; that's within the second lowest middle-class bracket (the middle bracket, in fact - between "under £100" and "£300-1,000") in the 1861 census, exactly 20 years earlier. There were tons of middle class people making less than 100£ a year, but all working class people were classified as making less than 100£ a year as well. This would mean that Watson was making, every year, a bit more than twice as much as a junior clerk second class in the Post Office would make, and if I recall correctly, about as much as a Scotland Yard detective could be expected to make. Not bad, for a pension. And since he was a doctor, it would put him solidly in the middle class, even though you could be a skilled worker (or a policeman) and be making more than that while still be considered working class. Not that we ever doubted Watson was middle-class.


*For those on my f'list not familiar with the abbreviations, s=shilling and d=pence. I was completely flummoxed by this in the Moomintroll books when I was little, no less by the 8/- meaning eight shillings and no pence. I thought they'd made up the currency *laughs*

Comments

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Thank you! ^___^

This is when you get into the argument about blue collar and white collar jobs, which have less to do with how much you earn and more to do with how much education you've received to get that job.

Yeah, this is really interesting. Growing up in the U.S. you get inundated when you're little with "You can do whatever you want no matter who you are! You can be president!" It almost became a cliche. And then you grow up and come up against, you know, obstacles O_o

[the-arethusa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, here in the UK we get hypnotised by all the talk about how there is no longer a class divide in this country. Then you go into the real world and, like you say, face a load of obstacles that certain people in society never have to face.

Things are better now, without doubt, but we still have a long way to go before we rid ourselves of the class system.