DeFoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719):Money
From Marteau
Overview and first orientation
Money plays an important role in DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe – even though the islander again and again celebrates his independence and his triumph over the whole attribution of value to money, a medium of no value to him, who is robbed of all human commerce.
Crusoe keeps a continuous account of his wealth and he is finally overwhelmed when he has to realise how rich he became in the time of his isolation. His computations mention
- English pounds sterling
- Portuguese Moidors or Moydors i.e. gold moedas and Cruisadoes, i.e. silver cruzados,
- Spanish Pieces of Eight, i.e. pesos, silver coins of eight reales,
- unspecified (gold) ducats
- unminted gold
The following pages offer
- a calculating tool for computations with English money
- a conversion tool for Portuguese and English moneys
- a conversion tool for Spanish and English moneys
- information about the gold-price development
- an overview of 18th and 19th century wages in English pounds sterling
- Collected information on prices and wages in pounds sterling at the beginning of the 18th century
