If prices (red) and wages (black) rise proportionally, the "real" earnings (the thin blue line) remain the same. You can only actually buy more if your earnings rise faster than the prices — the late 19th-century situation.

Detail view: 1680-1730
Green boxes: the Nine Years War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1710 with the treaty of Utrecht officially ending that war in 1712). — The blue line of rising prosperity has a peak with the Glorious Revolution in 1688, it falls with the Nine Years War, rises again between the two wars and it drops again after 1706. Clearly visible: the downturn of 1708 and 1709, the years before the war administration lost the elections.

The Century of Excessive Growth
 
To make them comparable L. H. Officer had brought his data onto a common level of 100 for the year 1913. We are grateful for the permission to offer his data for this special purpose with the year 1700 serving as the "normal year". See the table bellow for the revised data base and see Lawrence H. Officer, "What Were the U.K. Earnings Rate and Consumer Price Index Then?" Economic History Services, February 2004, at http://eh.net/hmit/ukearncpi/ for the original data with 1913 as the "normal" year.