The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0276  Wednesday, 9 February 2000.

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 08 Feb 2000 11:47:55 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.0270 Re: Money and Prostitution

[2]     From:   Clifford Stetner <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 8 Feb 2000 16:06:50 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.0270 Re: Money and Prostitution


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 08 Feb 2000 11:47:55 -0800
Subject: 11.0270 Re: Money and Prostitution
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.0270 Re: Money and Prostitution

One useful point that's been raised in this discussion of money and
prostitution is the difficulty of finding a "basket" of goods that can
be used to measure the value of currency against in divergent historical
periods.  The Economist, as a (IMHO) fascinating example, uses a big
mac, since it's standardized.  Unfortunately, their index only covers
the last few years, and only in countries with McDonald restaurants.

One thing that I think we can agree upon is that we're all very much
better off than our 16th century counterparts.  The sheer difficulty of
finding a parallel with bread as a staple of the diet illustrates this.
A sensible method, in my mind, is to measure (using wills, inventories,
etc.) the consumption of sixteenth-century unskilled labourers, measure
its value according to prices now, and compare it with the consumption
of their year 2000 colleagues.

Cheers,
Se     

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