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 repeatedly celebrates his triumph over the whole attribution of value to money, a medium of no value to him, who is deprived 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 and Cruisadoes, i.e. gold moedas and silver cruzados,
- Spanish Pieces of Eight, i.e. pesos, silver coins of eight reales,
- unspecified (gold) ducats
- unminted gold
The few coins mentioned matched specific amounts of gold and silver and one knew how to calculate between these coins. Our marginal notes offer the equivalents in English money at the rates valid in 1719.
To computations for 1719 are not a weak compromise. A gold Moidore minted in 1670 would not contain one gram less gold in 1719 – its value as a gold coin would remain stable. A historical problem is created by the unstable gold/silver ratio: None of the European currencies could fix a price at which a certain amount of gold would match a certain amount of silver; yet all the currencies gave sums on a silver standard. The problem increased where a country failed to stabilise its silver money (by issuing new coins of the established quality). The 1680s and 1690s thus saw the English unwilling to continue changing their gold guineas into silver shillings at the established rate of 20 shillings the guinea. The guinea rose from 20 to 30 shillings in 1694, it was successfully fixed at 21s, 6d in 1698; the rate was modified to 21 shillings to stabilise the monetary system in 1717 and it remained at this ratio till 1816.
One will avoid the historical problem by handling gold and silver moneys separately. We have given equivalents of gold coins in grams fine gold for all the coins mentioned. The additional computation in pounds sterling silver follows the assessment DeFoe’s readers would have made in 1719. So and so many moidors would have been such an amount of money in 1719, so the logic behind the computations given.
The far more problematic question will be that of values in modern moneys. Any such computation will be histaorically misleading. An 18th century income was a family and houshold income, modern incomes have changed their function. It will here be better to keep an eye on contemporary prices and wages. Was the amount mentioned much money? That depends on the perspective - it might have been much for a man with a yearly income of £45 and little for someone with an estate of several hundred pounds per annum. The last links given above should supply the information needed for the more specific estimates. Visit the following two pages for
- 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
