The value of kreuzer

[Andy289]

I have some historical data about people of Hunedoara (a city in Transylvania) that earned 30 kreuzer per day and they were unhappy with this wage. Is there a way to estimate what they could really buy with these money? Maybe a comparation with our days.

[THCoins]

I think you will have to specify the time period which this concerns ?

[Andy289]

Sorry, I forgot to mention the year 1803.

[Figleaf]

30 Kreuzer seems low for an average daily wage, but wages must have varied quite a bit.

There are no good price statistics going back to 1803. In addition, the German monetary system was a mess. I have assumed a Kreuzer of the Southern German monetary standards, so that 30 Kreuzer would be a half gulden, so the average monthly wage would amount to about 15 1/4 gulden. The closest monthly income quotes I found in South German coins date from 1760. You may assume an amount of inflation in the period 1760-1803. However, it is not possible to compare purchasing power with modern prices, because people would buy a totally different package of goods, e.g they would not eat meat or eat it once a week only, they'd seldom spend money on communication and they wouldn't need computers or light bulbs and use little or no energy but they'd buy wood for heating and candles and oil for lighting:

Flower painter: 30 to 35 gulden
Apprentice painter: 5 gulden (probably excluding meals and lodging in the painter's house)
Paint maker: 20 gulden
Fireman (tending the fire of a steam engine): 26 2/3 gulden
Foreman of day labourers: 16 2/3 gulden
Wood cleaver: 8 gulden DAILY!

The best price information I have dates from 1740:
A rich man's meal: 36 to 48 Kreuzer
A servants meal: 12 Kreuzer (includes beer)
Weekly rent of a room in a good inn: 45 Kreuzer (does not include food)
Stabling a horse for a day: 1 Kreuzer
Renting a coach and horses for a day: 4 1/2 gulden (includes driver)

Peter

[Andy289]

Quite interesting facts. Thank you Peter, it helps me a lot to understand the prices for some goods or services of that time.

[Enlil]

References people, references are the key.