Notes

This chapter provides currency conversion tables and historical exchange rates for the eighteenth century, offering readers a tool to understand the monetary values mentioned throughout Franklin's life and era.

The chapter presents three snapshot years—1706, 1750, and 1790—showing how British pounds, and later dollars, functioned in America and how their purchasing power changed over time. In 1706, £1 sterling had the equivalent purchasing power of £104 (or $161) in 2002 money, with gold priced at £4.35 per fine ounce. By 1750, the pound remained the standard but several colonies, notably Pennsylvania under Franklin's influence, had begun issuing their own paper currency in pounds, though with variable values; purchasing power held relatively steady at £103 equivalent. By 1790, the dollar had become the standard currency in the new United States, with an official exchange rate established: £1 equaled $4.55 and 23.5 French livres. However, the pound's consumer purchasing power had declined to £70 in 2002 equivalents, while $1 in 1790 held the value of $19.26 in 2002 dollars. The chapter notes that gold maintained a fixed price relative to the pound but that direct purchasing-power comparisons between the pound and dollar after 1790 are not reliably comparable due to different inflation trajectories.