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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed
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To: GraceZ who wrote (86092)3/27/2001 12:15:05 PM
From: Ilaine  Read Replies (1) of 436258
 
I just did some playing around with the historic price of gold vs. the historic price of a bushel of wheat. First thing I found out was that Congress set the price of an ounce of gold at $20.67 in 1837, and didn't change it until 1934, when it was set at $35. Second thing I found out was that Congress set the ratio of the price of silver to the price of gold at 15:1 in 1792. Translation - there hasn't been a free market in the price of gold in US history.

I determined that the ratio of an ounce of gold to the price of a bushel of wheat in 1837 (40 cents) was about 50 bushels to an ounce, pretty close to what it is today, about 65 bushels to an ounce of gold. In the meantime, you can earn enough to buy an bushel of wheat ($4) by working an hour at minimum wage. I am guessing it took about a day in 1837. In 1837, a man with a shovel digging the Erie canal earned sixty two and a half cents a day.

shelbycountyhistory.org

So if you compare a dollars-per-hour-of-work to the price of a bushel of wheat, the dollar hasn't eroded, not for the person who is buying the wheat. But if you compare the price of a bushel of wheat to an ounce of gold, the person selling the wheat can get just about as much gold.

In 1837, a day laborer could buy an ounce of gold with 33 days of work. Today it takes less than a week.
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