Saturday 30 December 1665

Annotations

• - Larry Bunce on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 12:10am. Flag this

  A currency converter figures 4000 pounds in 1665 comes to $727,000 today. Hard work and good connections (and a hand in the till) pays off.

• - Todd Bernhardt on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 12:50am. Flag this

  Wow! Sam’s almost doubled his net worth. Nothing like the Plague to focus the mind on business, eh?

  Looks as if Phil’s going to need to update the graph here:
  http://www.pepysdiary.com/about/archive/2008/12/21/9549.php

• - Eric Walla on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 02:54am. Flag this

  But does he let Elizabeth know? I have a feeling she would want a major upgrade in conditions to reflect their good fortune, whereas Sam would want an upgrade almost exclusively in those things that make him look better in business.

• - A. De Araujo on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 11:00am. Flag this

  “a great deal worth above 4000 l.”
  Is he including his land?

• - Tony Eldridge on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 11:07am. Flag this

  I hope all our annotators face 2009 with equally “great ease of mind”. Happy New Year!

• - Bradford on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 02:31pm. Flag this

  When we tot up our worldly wealth this time next year, may all of us be worth, according to Pepys’s stringent accounting methods, £4000 apiece.

  (He doesn’t do double entry, does he? Net worth, but not Expenditures vs. Income?)

• - Wim van der Meij on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 06:33pm. Flag this

  From Holland: happy and healthy new year to all readers and annotators of this fine site.

• - Terry Foreman on Wed 31 Dec 2008, 08:55pm. Flag this

  John Evelyn’s Diary (Dirk’s not having posted it)

  30. To Woodcot, where I supped at my Lady Mordaunt’s at Ashsted, where was a room hung with pintado, full of figures great and small, prettily representing sundry trades and occupations of the Indians, with their habits; here supped also Dr. Duke, a learned and facetious gentleman.

  pintado = painted fabrics brought by Portuguese from India
  http://books.google.com/books?id=ZljldSpV28UC&pg=RA1-PA513&lpg=RA1-PA513&dq=pintado+john+evelyn&source=web&ots=iKKX2Qg-rv&sig=_Evftdpj54M3BLtXTYWLt_aXWOA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result

• - Paul Chapin on Thu 1 Jan 2009, 04:08am. Flag this

  “a learned and facetious gentleman” [Evelyn’s description of Dr. Duke]

  Per OED, not our current meaning of “facetious”. Rather:

  †1. [After L. facetus.] Of style, manners, etc.: Polished and agreeable, urbane. [Obsolete]
  

• - Robert Gertz on Thu 1 Jan 2009, 08:57pm. Flag this

  So…How’s about the rest? Wasn’t Sam worth about 1650Ls last year about this time?

• - Michael Robinson on Fri 2 Jan 2009, 09:04am. Flag this

  “… all the afternoon to my accounts again, …”

  Last year’s summary:-

  ” … I was well satisfied with my worke, and, above all, to find myself, by the great blessing of God, worth 1349l., by which, as I have spent very largely, so I have laid up above 500l. this yeare above what I was worth this day twelvemonth. The Lord make me for ever thankful to his holy name for it! “

  http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1664/12/31/

• - Nix on Fri 2 Jan 2009, 04:03pm. Flag this

  As I recall, when Samuel started the diary he reckoned hs net worth at 40 L — so today’s casting of accounts reflects a hundredfold increase. Let us hope he didn’t invest any of it in General Motors.

  My impression is that Samuel’s accounts reflect only his financial assets — cash and receivables, minus loans outstanding — and not personal goods or household furnishings. Not clear where his land inheritance fits into the reckoning.

• - cgs on Sun 4 Jan 2009, 08:11pm. Flag this

  Derivatives were not in the picture then, they never counted the un-laid eggs as egg layers.
  It be CASH, gold and silver, not the fur coat from Tiffani’s,or the kegs of wine or the cauldron of coals that be resting next to the Jakes.
  Land be classed as the rent collected or owed [10 quid per year ?] not its potential selling value.