C2703 Make Him Four Hundred Million Taels of Silver

One could find some clues from the many literary works on how strong the purchasing power of the final pound of nineteenth century was. In the gold standard of the epoch, the currency values of the various countries were very stable, there was no large scale inflation at all.

Famous novel Jane Eyre, in which the heroine works as a governess at Thornfield Manor, only earns 20 pounds a year