the value of 19th c. rubles

[Jules Levin]

On 9/3/2012 3:05 PM, Kokobobo, Ani wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions on how to explain the monetary value 
> of nineteenth-century rubles?

Clearly one must compare the prices of comparable commodities.  Googling 
commodity prices in Czarist Russia got me this: 
http://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/nafzigerMicroLivingStandards_WilliamsWorkingPaper_Nov2007.pdf

It seems to be a book or pamphlet with detailed data that must be waded 
through. The best way of comparing for American students would be 
something like the price of a horse and carriage or a working estate, 
compared to a modern luxury auto or a Beverly Hills mansion. In the few 
pages I checked, I found the following (for example):

--... estate officers (who were themselves serfs) in the 1840s earned 
between 250 and 700 paper rubles per year.

-- A serf hired in 1844 to serve as an estate coachman earned 350 paper 
rubles per year.

--Nikolai Chernikhin, a migrant laborer in St Petersburg, reported 
earnings in 1846 of 500 paper rubles per year.

--... in the 1840s one silver ruble was worth approximately 3.5 paper 
rubles.


          *Table 3: Goods for Sale at the Voshchazhnikovo Market c. 1831
          (prices in rubles)*23 *'Everyday Supplies' Sold Locally *

	

*Average Price *

beef, per /pood* /

	

5.50

salt, per /pood /

	

2.30

green onions, per /chetverik* /

	

0.60

oat flour, per /pood /

	

1.20

hops, per /pood /

	

11.00

butter, per /pood /

	

15.00

eggs, per 100

	

1.80

white sugar, per /funt* /

	

1.00

hemp straw, per /chetverik /

	

2.50

rye flour, per /pood /

	

1.30

candles, per /pood /

	

12.50

hemp oil, per /pood /

	

9.50

hay, per /pood /

	

0.80

  Obviously, somewhere out there are the figures that would most impress 
your students.  But even these are suggestive.  Compare the 350 rubles 
annual pay of an estate driver with what it would cost to have a 
full-time car driver at your disposal now--$30,000?
Jules Levin
Los Angeles



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