TEA FIFTEEN SHILLINGS A POUND

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4313, 23 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

TEA FIFTEEN SHILLINGS A POUND

THE PURCHASING. POWER OF A SOVEREIGN A CENTURY AGO. Nothing throws into bolder or more striking relief the progress achieved toy the masses of the English people in the direction of comfort and good living during the century mow:, closing than axomparison of the purchasing power, of toe sovereign of a hundred .years..ago. with that of: the samksqvercign. to-day.. . Take bread, for example--tho staff of life then to a far greater degree even than it is at present! On January 1,1801,;\toe quartern' loaf was selling in London at l s 9id: and in March r it liad men to 1$ 10|d. Its ptesent' price varies, between Id an d 6d, according to the quality of the flour and the locality in - which it is tailed. Tt follows,: therefore,- that the housdwife of a century ago had to expend four sovereigns to purchase approx-; jmately the same -quantity of bread as is obtained to-day for. one.

Barley and oaten "cakes’ were, it is true/ largely utedi as a substitute for whetatenbread; btit little was gained thereby,'' for the selling price of these inferior' grains arose -, in’ ■' sympa-j was this -enormous’ disparity tween prices prevailing then- ana now] confined to cereals alone). Beef fetched j A SIHLLING> PQBNI)/.. V' i mutton thirteen pence, - and veal fourteen pence.' And these were aysrage prices. For choice cuts on’o-and-six and one-and-eight were asked and obtain-, ■■■ ■■■ •* 1 - '■■■'"■ \ 1 "■ ■ J ; ''■ y ,i- ' "V - V ' 'I. """ i No butter was- to be had in 1801 at. less than sixteetapeUoe a poundjand cheese; cost a shilling. Candles were quoted at; elevenpence, loaf ’.sugar at—seventeen-, pence, - and soap at tenpenoe. • - hiven, cleanliness-was. an expensive luxury- in, those days. Coffee fetched - £8- percw t 1 in bond, and to this had. to be added] £2 5s 8d duty, making the price $o the wholesale merchant £lO 6s Bd, The pricenow is about ,£llos j»er cwt,. Eveto tea, which is how found in comparative pro-; fusion in the poorest cottage, was then the. luxury of the wel 1-to^do, .only >ij* 16 commonest kindis 'being quoted .-af:, seven to nine shillings,the pound. Ibis quality, moreover, was largely adulterated with sloe, liquorice, vand" ash-tree leaves. Really good, pure tea cost ten, and ; even fifteen ~ shillings' the pound. It was much the same with other minor luxuries. The high price of sugar, of course, affected sympatheticaUy. everyr thing into the composition of which it entered. Jam was considered! cheap at eighteenpenc© the pound. ah kinds of dried fruits were from 300 to 500 per cent, dearer than at present. We grumble at tha price of coals now, hut in the winter of 1800-1801 they were being hawked in , the streets of London at - ;

£2 11s A CHALDRON. A load' of hay fetched £7 3s in Whitechapel on January, 5, 1801. Small: turnips were retailed at Idi apietoe, large pnes were worth twopence, to threepence. _ , Even wearing apparel w'as expensive beyond* all conception. An ordinary suit of ;woolletn clothes cost between eight and nine pounds- A pair of boots fetched a sovereign. Yet, withal, trade, had never been worse. Manchester, Leeds, phet-, field, Coventry, all told the same tale, of factories closed and workpeople starving. These were the days when. raw silk was quoted in the London market returns, at £5 12s per pound, at that. , This was largely duo ;to the war - then raging with Frimce, the risks diie to which added enormously to freights and insurance. Til us J a small ship than 400 tons burden charged for bringing a cargo from Calais - to London. From Bordeaux £BO,OOO t waß asked and paid; and no wonder, when on an average three out of -every’five vessels flying the British flag homeward bound were overhauled by French privateers.,,