78 harley Granville barker reclaimed The Value of English Money in The Voysey Inheritance Amy Stoller In 1911, the British pound sterling was made up of twenty shillings, worth twelve pence each; so that a pound equaled 240 pence. A sovereign was a gold coin worth one pound. It isn’t possible to determine the exact value of 1911 currency in 2007 (nobody bought air conditioners in 1911, and we no longer purchase buggy whips). But there are calculating formulas that allow us to estimate that £1 in 1911 had the purchasing power of £68 in 2006 (the latest year for which we have figures available). So, the missing £300,000 in 1911 could have bought about as much as £21 million today (or 242 million in U.S. dollars) in goods and services. Five “bob” (shillings) then would be about £15 now, or $29—enough for Beatrice’s lunch (a nice one). Alice Maitland’s £800 per year represents a modern annual purchasing power of £56,000, and Ethel’s £1,000 dowry a contemporary $140,000. Booth and Beatrice’s marriage settlement of £10,000 would buy about two-thirds of a million pounds’ worth (some $1,330,000) in today’s money. By comparison with these figures for the upper middle class, the average weekly wage for a woman in 1910 was seven shillings, six pence. That’s £19.5 pounds a year in 1911, or approximately $1,365 today—hardly enough to keep body and soul together! A gentleman’s gentleman in service to minor aristocracy might earn £50 a year, plus a new suit of clothes and bed and board. That would have allowed for some savings with very careful management. Yet today, the equivalent amount of £3,500 ($7,000)—even with clothing, food, and shelter thrown in—might not stretch as far: expenses never dreamed of in 1911 are taken for granted now. Amy Stoller is resident Dialect Designer/Coach and occasional Dramaturge at the Mint Theater Company, and the sole proprietor of Stoller System Dialect Coaching & Design. The Voysey Inheritance was her second production at the Mint.
Conversion rates fluctuate; dollar amounts were calculated at 1 GBP to 2.00 USD, the rate as of April 23, 2007.