Per the web site about currency in the colonies and the early beginnings of
the US.
Thanks to Thomas Jefferson.
The gold and silver of many kingdoms filled the gap created by a chronic
scarcity of British coins in the American colonies. Jefferson's Memorandum
Books reveal that he loaded friends bound for England with precious metal of
all shapes and nationalities. In 1769 he handed Matthew Maury, seeking books
for Jefferson and ordination for himself in London, three gold Portuguese
half johannes (joes), two gold German ducats, and a silver coffeepot,
weighing twenty-two ounces.[2] A year later, one of Jefferson's most
troublesome legal clients finally paid him in a motley mixture of silver and
gold -- half joes and moidores from Portugal, doubloons and pistoles from
Spain, and 308 English half crowns.[3]
Jefferson's pocket coin scale, coins, and glasses. Photograph courtesy
United States MintTo compound the disorder of the situation, each colony had
its own rates of exchange. On crossing the border from Virginia to Maryland
in 1775, Jefferson had to note in his Memorandum Book the new values of
Spanish dollars and pistareens and Portuguese half joes, as well as English
guineas and shillings.[4] But for Jefferson, even a purely British system
would have been an ordeal. He described the mysteries of arithmetic for an
American school boy, "puzzled with adding the farthings, taking out the
fours and carrying them on; adding the pence, taking out the twelves and
carrying them on; adding the shillings, taking out the twenties and carrying
them on."
"But when he came to the pounds," Jefferson continued, "where he had only
tens to carry forward, it was easy and free from error." Jefferson began
advocating decimal reckoning as an orderly alternative to the currency chaos
in 1776. In 1784, after his "Notes on the establishment of a Money Unit,"[5]
he recommended a system with the advantages of convenience, simplicity, and
familiarity. The Spanish dollar was convenient in size, its decimal division
would make computation simple, and its multiples and subdivisions would
accord with already well-known coins. "Even mathematical heads," he
admitted, "feel the relief of an easier substituted for a more difficult
process." Jefferson's lucid arguments overwhelmed rival plans and the United
States soon became the first nation in history to adopt a decimal coinage
system.
Jefferson was one of the earliest Americans to consider a decimal currency.
He gave it, in 1784, its most articulate and persuasive expression in his
"Notes on Coinage." Congress, convinced by these arguments, adopted it with
little dissent. It was eventually implemented because of the agreement of
major figures in the U.S. government with the basic principles of
Jefferson's argument. Jefferson also became part of the realization of the
system through his involvement with the establishment and first years of the
U.S. Mint.
John Philip Adams
Texas
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sunshine49
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: question about money
Thanks, and what you say would also be interesting, but I'm just
comparing out of curiosity, and to get a general idea. Even within
the same time frame you can get an idea of wealth, one man's estate
was worth $53,525.24, while another's was worth $6,891.56 [he had
been a plasterer, died elderly for the time, and widowed, but during
his life he had bought and sold quite a lot of land]. Yes, I did
notice bedding seemed relatively valuable within the context of an
estate, while kitchen tools were very cheap, cheaper than the
woodworking tools many had. Horses were worth much more than cattle
[and the wealthier had cattle, the middling to poorer people had only
"hogges", everybody seemed to have "hogges"]. No one seemed to have a
lot of cattle, usually a cow, a heifer or two, maybe a team of oxen
or a bull. No "herds" like you see today out in the country. They
never seemed to list fowl and poultry in inventories, I am assuming
most people had at least a few chickens scratching around the yard.
I've only found one instance in my small sample, with sheep [11].
Land prices went up and down rather dramatically. 15 1/2 acres in
Amelia County in 1806 was sold for a mere $2,290.92. Maybe the
economy was still on poor footing from the Revolutionary War. The
$53,525 estate mentioned above was from a few years earlier. In that
estate, unfortunately, there were 5 slaves, 4 women and one young
adult male, whose worth was $9,355.66. Why was land and the house,
barn and other buildings never listed on these inventories, I wonder?
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Apr 29, 2008, at 7:08 AM, Martha Katz-Hyman wrote:
> Rather than spend time figuring out what something costs in today's
> dollars,
> it might be more helpful to figure out what something cost as a
> percentage
> of average yearly income. For instance, in the last quarter of the
> 18th
> century, a journeyman tradesperson in Williamsburg, received, on
> average,
> somewhere around 30 pounds/year.
>
> So if a bed and its furniture (mattress, hangings, pillows, etc.)
> was valued
> at 10 pounds in a probate inventory of that period, and the
> inventory total
> was about 100 pounds (not unusual), you could make the reasonable
> conclusion
> that this was a pretty substantial investment, especially for a
> person of
> middling income.
>
> There are, of course, exceptions and caveats to this example. But
> given the
> difficulty of translating prices across two-plus centuries, and the
> difficulty of comparing prices for things that were very valuable two
> centuries ago and do not have the same value to us, it may be more
> useful to
> use the comparative method described above rather than try to compare
> pound-to-dollar values.
>
> I know Harold Gill can explain this better than I, and welcome his
> comments!
>
> Martha Katz-Hyman
>
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