Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-01-28
COST OF LIVING UNDER CHARLES n.
Some of the Prices an Ordinary Family
Had to Pay for Necessaries.

some OF the Prices an Ordinary Family
Had to Pay for Necessaries.
The prices of things in the time of Charles
III may be found interesting In consider
ing them remenher that the general pur-
chasing power of money was then four
times that of the present time A leg of
mutton generally cost two and six pence: a
shoulder, two shillings; a hand of pork,
eighteen pence; "a cheese''-they had one
every week, but it is not stated how much
it weighed-varied from one and two pence
to one and eight pence. Butter was eight or
nine pence pound; they used about a pound
week. Sugar was SIX pence pound They
bought their flour by six pennyworths, and
their Goals in small quantities for eighteen
pence each week during the winter. SO that
their fires must have been principally kept
a-going with wood. Once month the
washer woman was called in, and the big
things, such as the sheets, were washed.
Therefore the ordinary washing was all
done at home.
Eaisins and currants were sold at two
pence a pound, while the weekly expendi-
ture on eggs, nutmegs, ginger, mace, rice,
suet, etc, proclaims the pudding. This
was made in fifty different ways, but the
ingredients were always the same, and
they evidently had pudding every day.
pies and meat pies and open tarts These
were all sent to the bakehouse to be baked,
at penny each, so that the kitchen con-
tanned no oven. Candles We're five pence Il
pound, but the entries of candles are so
irregular that one suspects the accounts to
be imperfect.
Herrings Were bought nearly every week
and sometimes ling-''a pole Of ling"
Bacon was seven pence pound. Rice was
also seven pence a pound. Oranges came
in about December: cherries in their season
were two pence a pound: gooscberries, four
pence. Very little milk is bought. Some
times for months there is no mention of
milk. This may have been because their
own dairy supplied them. Perhaps, how
ever, milk was only occasionally used in
the house. The food of very young chill
dren-infants after they were weaned-was
not then milk, but pap, which suppose to
have been some CONNECTION of flour and
sugar.
There is no mention at all of tea, coffee
or chocolate. Tea was already fashion
able drink, but ut this time it was sixty
shillings pound, a price which placed it
beyond the reach. of the ordinary house
hold. Coffee was much cheaper-at the
coffee houses it was sold ut a penny cup
but it had not yet got into private houses
Turning to other things besides food:
Schooling for sc. j. ," was two pence a week
The boys hornbook cost two pence, and
his primer four pence. His shoes were one
shilling and nine pence the pair The cob
bier who made them was Goodman Archer
Goody Archer was his wife. \ letter cost
two pence or four pence; everything
bought or ordered was brought by the car
rier, which greatly increased the expense.
\ = OIL Oh
silk stockings ten shillings, and her ordi-
nary stockings six shillings a pair; her
shoes three shilings; her mask one shil-
| ling; her pattens for muddy weather were
two shillings a pair; her knitting needles
| cost penny apiece; her steel bodkin two
pence; her needles eight pence the half
| hundred; her pins nine pence a thousand
her ribbon three pence yard.
AS for the little things required for the
| house they were far dearer than now. con-
| sidering especially the value of money.
| For instance, mop cost a shilling; Il
| pitcher, five pence; glasses, one shilling
| and eight pence; an earthenware pan, four
| pence; broom, six pence; mustard pot
one shilling and six pence; Il paddock, ten
| pence; a mouse trap, ten pence Eleven
| shillings were given for pair of candle
| sticks; it is not stated of what metal. Hol-
land was two shillings a yard; news
| book" cost IA penny.
On one occasion only it is recorded that
| they bought book-only one book, and it
was SO expensive that they could never af-
ford to buy another Here is the entry:
| Paid n gentleman for book e3 10 o."
| What book, one asks in wonder, could be
worth seventy shillings in the year 1913 to
man who was neither n scholar nor col
lector?-Walter Besant i'll IIarper's