Mr. Darcy’s Ten Thousand a Year
<i>Consols schmonsols!</i>  The modern prospector such as Mrs. Bennet would want to know how much is that in today's money.  Using the Bank of England's trusty inflation calculator and plugging in 1813 (the year <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> was published), Darcy's worth £681K a year and his friend half that.  In the Valley or London, what's that, a director level at a FAANG, and a tech lead?  Using the annual yield to derive asset, the author in another paper put Darcy's net worth at £16.8m - £28m.  Pathetic!  Not even a one-percenter.  I would not walk three dirt miles and muddy the hem of my dress and suffer a terrible cold for half that.<p>I have a stupid fascination for historical finance tidbits like this.  I once wrote a price comparison paper for <i>Les Misérables</i>, Thénardier accused Valjean: "You eat forty-franc bunches of asparagus in January!”  I have lost all my sources (it was likely wildly inaccurate and didn't take into account GDP, cost of living, relative wealth) but my paper says one franc in 1830 was about £2.2 (correct me please) - so a bunch of winter asparagus was £88?  Sounds excessive.  Cosette was purchased for a mere £3300, and her inheritance from Valjean was £1.32m.