What would Darcy's £10,000 income be worth if he were not a fictional figure and alive today?
The answer is that is is very complicated. History Today dealt with this in an article by Roderick Floud 'Pricing the Past' March 2019. It is often done using inflation indices which have been compiled for the past, these might be based on prices or earnings, or a combination - each giving different result. But the article suggests, as my anecdotal experience would confirm, that these give a result far too low. People have resorted to other methods for example including taking a single commodity and using that at as the measure. For example. you could give an idea of the buying power of a daily wage by giving it in the number of Mars Bars it could buy, or the income of a Doctor in terms of the daily wage equivalent of unskilled labours, or Roman Legionaries. Froud uses a site called MeasuringWorth.com which helps calculate historic value by a range of methods. Be warned it is complicated. However, I have just discovered that if you go straight to this page, t...
