QUESTION: I have been reading Churchill’s Marlborough: His Life and Times, and I have been trying to get a grip on how much it was that the Queen was actually giving him. I see that £10,000 in 1700 could be worth anything from £1.3 Million to 250 Million, and I am still puzzled as to which figure to have in mind.
ANSWER: To use £1.3 Million is silly as that is using the RPI and is measuring relative prices of goods and services. Marlborough was receiving an “income”, so using relative GDP per capita would be much better at £25.6 million.