Sunday 4 March 1665/66
(Lord’s day). And all day at my Tangier and private accounts, having neglected them since Christmas, which I hope I shall never do again; for I find the inconvenience of it, it being ten times the labour to remember and settle things. But I thank God I did it at last, and brought them all fine and right; and I am, I thinke, by all appears to me (and I am sure I cannot be 10l. wrong), worth above 4600l., for which the Lord be praised! being the biggest sum I ever was worth yet.
21 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"And all day at my Tangier and private accounts, having neglected them since Christmas"
About this L&M refer us to last Dec 21, where Pepys notes "my head full of business and some trouble for my letting my accounts go so far that I have made an oathe this night for the drinking no wine, &c., on such penalties till I have passed my accounts and cleared all." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
cape henry • Link
Pepys growing wealth was manifested recently when, on 2/25, he rented the coach-and-four. I do not recall him having done so before. He usually relied on others to provide the transportation or rode saddle horses. But this would have been a serious show of status, which, I suppose, he felt his destination and the company he would find there. Recall, too, that the horseback trips were frequently described in some detail, whereas the coach was here mentioned as a detail and without mention of the cost.
Terry Foreman • Link
Nice take, cape henry. Of course, Pepys had rent a coach before. A search for "my coach" yields eight --
http://www.gyford.com/cgi-bin/mt/…
-- the first on Sunday 2 March 1661/62 "talking long in bed with my wife about our frugall life for the time to come, proposing to her what I could and would do if I were worth 2,000l., that is, be a knight, and keep my coach, which pleased her,1 and so I do hope we shall hereafter live to save something, for I am resolved to keep myself by rules from expenses." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
I couldn't resist posting Pepys's poignant dream of nobility; the other seven are actual rentals -- one service the many London livery stables provided.
Miss Ann • Link
It just seems like yesterday that he was gleeful at being worth 1,000l. He certainly has come along ... no GFC then.
Mary • Link
GFC?
Robert Gertz • Link
Ah,Sam...Posterity would say Samuel Pepys needs no 2000Ls for nobility.
All you need are platinum record albums of your greatest hits...Right, Sir Elton?
Albatross • Link
Were Samuel an contemporary American citizen, he would be worth 2,300L... and falling...
Ruben • Link
GFC
Global Financial Crisis? (as seen in Wikipedia)
A. Hamilton • Link
Sam's poignant dream
Thanks Terry! I thought of this passage when, seeing how rich Sam has grown in the past year, I wondered about his old dream of knighthood. But I didn't know how to find it. Sam has come a long way in just four years.
cgs • Link
Terry, thanks for that 'nitemare' reference,his sitting in the pews of rich and famous waiting for the egg show and all his relatives waiting for their fair share of the farthings.
By my own calculation, if he invested in gold coin, he be worth a mere 2.3 mill quid[4600l times 500]today.
To be in the top 4 % of wealthy in the USA it takes 250,000 dollar 200,000 Ql] per year income.
Lawrence • Link
Stupid question coming???
Money was all coinage then, right? so where did Sam keep all this lolly, I know he's reckoned it all up in his ledger books etc. but I would want to tell (Count) it, so I knew for sure what I'd got all told?
JWB • Link
lolly:
"...I to Alderman Backewell’s to set all my reckonings straight there, which I did, and took up all my notes. So evened to this day, and thence to Sir Robert Viner’s, where I did the like, leaving clear in his hands just 2000l. of my owne money, to be called for when I pleased." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
cgs • Link
money, be it some as JWB says and quotes and a lot be in coin [and tallies] stuffed into his box, pouches and of course some be in his pallias, paper monies be a thing of the future.
Remember it was not until 1960's that UK workers could be paid by cheque [IOU's, script etc]for wages earned, it had to be hard currency as the man in the street had been conned so many times by banks defaulting [it be great for bank robbers], see the references to the Tars getting IOU's then finding scalpers to cash their checques [still in practice in USA for low wage earners that fear B.G.] so that they could get their bread & some mouse cheese and sip of beer.
The betters liked the hard stuff or legal papers all drawn up by the legal beaver, very hard on those that failed to read nice Latin or Norman French.
We are still trying to understand that slippery word money. There are too many people finding ways to skim off the excess deriving benefits from derivatives..
A man that owes a Million and has a Million plus one penny be a rich man worthy of being Kowtowed too but the man that owes nowt but has a penny for the loo is poor.
Todd Bernhardt • Link
"I thought of this passage when, seeing how rich Sam has grown in the past year, I wondered about his old dream of knighthood. But I didn’t know how to find it. Sam has come a long way in just four years."
Me, too (thanks, Terry). Interesting to see that Sam has apparently decided that building his expertise and connections (and thus wealth) is more important than spending his £s on a title...
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Thanks Todd. I had not reflected that it might be a conscious choice.
Ruben • Link
Money
2000 is a lot for the son of the tailor, but I pressume it was small money for let's say, Sandwich or Evelyn. A palace was en expensive way of living and all the sons of aristocracy lived in palaces and never bothered to work, expect in honorary perks and the like. Money came to them from owning the land, and the town and the houses in the town, including London or Westminster. I think England still has a great part of the land in the hands of the very few.
Isn't it so?
Ruben • Link
I commented today's annotations to my wife and she sent me back to the Mishna (Ethics of the Fathers), part of the Jewish Books.
"Who is wise? He that learns from every man"
"Who is rich? He that is contented with his lot."
By this context, Samuel was wise and rich...
Ian • Link
Nice to see Sam doing so well. A quick currency conversion on the National Archives website gives the value of his 4600l. the modern equivalent of £353,142.00. A nice little nest egg!
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.u…
Second Reading
Marquess • Link
Shame Sam never did get a knighthood for all his hard work, still another branch of his family did obtain a baronetcy in around 1801 and eventually the earldom of Cottingham in the mid 1850's.
Louise Hudson • Link
Ian: “Nice to see Sam doing so well. A quick currency conversion on the National Archives website gives the value of his 4600l. the modern equivalent of £353,142.00. A nice little nest egg!”
Good amount of change but it wouldn’t buy him a nice house in London, in 2011.