Inflation of our currency does not mean quite the same thing as blowing it up, though the effects might seem similar, and we are told now that inflation is simply the process by which our money becomes worth less every year, and that isn't news to anyone.
It might come as a surprise that some of the letters written by our pioneering ancestors in Gippsland deal with increasing prices. After all, freight was ludicrously slow and expensive by today's standards and even small changes could make a huge change to a farm's chances of survival.
H. Mortimer Franklyn, editor of "The Victorian Review", wrote a book intended for sale among potential migrants in England, called "A Glance At Australia, 1880."
In that book he gives the details of many of the ruling prices at the time. They make an interesting comparison - but remember that we are reading his figures more than a hundred years down the track.
He tells us first just where the major labour groups were employed. Outside of Melbourne "there are four cities - Ballarat, one of the handsomest in the colony, Collingwood, Prahran and Sandhurst; and there are fifteen towns each containing upwards of 4000 inhabitants."
"Out of a population of 900,000, 103,520 persons are employed on farms and stations, 708 in flour mills, 897 in breweries, 817 in woollen mills, 1531 in tanneries and fellmongeries, 822 in brickyards and potteries, 480 in stone quarries and 28,403 in other manufactories and works."
It is interesting to note that there were more people engaged in making beer than there were in making bread and clothes.
Weekly wages for the workers on farms and stations were as follows, but it must be remembered that rations were also provided, usually including meat three times a day.
Ploughmen 20s 10d
Farm labourers 17s 6d
Married couples 25s 10d
Women 10s 3d
Mowers 28s 6d
Reapers 29s 4d
Stockmen were paid about 47 pounds a year, boundary riders about 40 pounds and shepherds about 34 pounds.
One paragraph says "Domestic servants command high wages; general servants receive from 30 pounds to 35 pounds (a year), housemaids from 25 pounds to 30, laundresses 30 pounds and cooks from 35 pounds to 60 pounds per annum. Hotel waiters obtain from 25s to 35s per week, grocers assistants from 15s to 30s and assistants in general stores from 20s to 40s per week."
These wages seem ludicrously small by today's standards but it must be remembered that inflation is a constant process, and even a healthy one. What has to be looked at is the relationship between wages and prices, rather than the comparison of wages over two very different periods.
For example, wages paid in butchering in 1879 were: Shopmen, 35s to 40s per week; boys, 15s to 20s; slaughtermen, 40s to 50s; small-goods men (pork butchers), 30s to 40s. All these were in addition to rations. Those wages were low, but so were prices. A pound of beef might cost only a penny-ha'penny, or a pound of mutton only a penny. Veal was as low as 4d per pound and pork could sometimes be bought for as little as 7d per pound.
The book from which I took these figures was written for circulation in England in an attempt to attract migrants to Victoria. Some of the figures might be just a little optimistic, but they seem to agree closely enough with figures from other sources. I am merely pointing out that no one source can ever be regarded as necessarily being entirely accurate.
Franklyn adds a list of retail prices which is not complete but which gives us the other side of the coin, as it were. With this list is it possible to compare the value of wages paid then with that of wages paid now - if your mathematics is better than mine.
These are the prices paid by the housewife of the time. Butter was 6d to 10d a pound, bread was 4d to 6d for a four-pound loaf, cheese was 7d to 10d per pound, beef was 1.5d to 6d, mutton 1d to 4d, veal 4d to 5d (per pound), milk was 4d to 6d per quart and eggs were 7d to 10d per dozen.
Potatoes were fetching 60s to 80s per ton. I don't know the retail price but I doubt that anyone would have carried home a ton of spuds from the supermarket. if only because there were no supermarkets!
Tea was 2/- to 3/- (shillings!) per pound, coffee was 1s.6d to 2s per pound, rice was 4d or 5d, sugar 2d to 7d, soap 5d to 6d per pound and candles were 6d to 1/- per pound - you bought them by weight.
A ton of coal was 30s to 35s and all the coal on sale in Victoria at this time (1879) was imported from other states. Firewood fetched 10s to 12s per ton, and kerosene was 8d per quart.
Luxury goods were, naturally, more expensive. Tobacco was 3s to 5s per pound (and not taxed like today). Colonial beer was 3d per pint but the imported English ales were twice the price (and they're still only half the value). Rum was 2/- per pint as were brandy and gin. I think that most of these spirits were bottled as quarts (I know that whisky was) so I don't know why Franklyn quotes pints. Nor does he tell us what the quality was like at these prices.
Calico was 6d per yard, while prints were down to fourpence ha'penny a yard. Moleskin trousers were 7s.6d a pair and shirts were anywhere between 1s.6d and 3/-. Boots were costly but very strong. A man could pay as much as 9/- for a pair. Women's boots were about 6/- and children's boots cost anywhere between 4/- and 4/6d.
The final figures appropriate to this world of mad real estate prices are rents. It was possible to rent a three-bedroomed house in the city itself for between 7s and 12s. Three miles from the city the range was 4s to 6s. Even I could afford that. Almost.
One final explanation. All the prices and measures here are in the old Imperial system. The letter 's' means a shilling, the letter 'd' means a penny. A pint is four sevenths of a litre and a pound is a little less than half a kilogram. Does that help? Oh, yes, and a yard was about the length of your finger less than a metre...I just can't think in metrics!