Pound sterling

:GBP redirects here. For other uses, see GBP (disambiguation).

On the value of British money

In 2003 the House of Commons Library published a research paper (PDF document) which included an index of the value of the pound for each year between 1750 and 2002, where the value in 1974 was indexed at 100. (This was an update to an original document published in 1998).

Related Topics:
2003 - House of Commons - 1750 - 2002 - 1974 - 1998

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The document shows that the value of the pound remained constant for the whole of the period until the First World War, allowing for inflationary fluctuations in wartime and with many periods when prices declined. The value of the index in 1750 was 5.1, increasing to a peak of 16.3 in 1813 before declining very soon after the end of the Napoleonic Wars to around 10.0 and remaining in the range 8.5–10.0 at the end of the nineteenth century. The index was 9.8 in 1914 and peaked at 25.3 in 1920, before declining again to 15.8 in 1933 and 1934 — prices were only about three times higher than they had been 180 years earlier.

Related Topics:
First World War - 1750 - 1813 - Napoleonic Wars - 1914 - 1920 - 1933 - 1934

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Inflation had a dramatic effect during and after the Second World War — the index was 20.2 in 1940, 33.0 in 1950, 49.1 in 1960, 73.1 in 1970, 263.7 in 1980, 497.5 in 1990, 671.8 in 2000 and 695.1 in 2002.

Related Topics:
Inflation - Second World War - 1940 - 1950 - 1960 - 1970 - 1980 - 1990 - 2000 - 2002

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