Thanks for your information, Brent--and your quip!  I needed a bit of humor
on this cold day.

It is indeed difficult to judge because there are so many variables. I will
check out the reference you have recommended.  

Netti

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tarter, Brent (LVA)
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 9:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Depreciation of money during Rev War period

Netti Schreiner-Yantis asked the other day about Revolutionary War
inflation. A recent Web site contains some general information and
references to some of the leading scholarship: 

http://mises.org/story/1273 

When it comes to attempts to translate currency values for the
eighteenth century into twenty-first century values, I have always
believed that was a more misleading than helpful exercise because what
was valuable and available then isn't now. What is more interesting is
to use whatever standards of value were employed at a given time to
compare items of merchandize, rates of taxation, personal prosperity,
and the like to get a better informed sense of how a person or a family
or a group or a place stacks up against others.

$0.02 American (such as it is, these days) from

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
[log in to unmask]

Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at
http://www.lva.virginia.gov

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