What would it cost back then?

[William O.]

If this is in the wrong section please move it, but after watching the "Williamsburg Gunsmith" video we got to wondering what it would cost to have a flintlock such as that one made back in the day? Would it had been a strictly cash transaction, part barter or what?

 

[napolean]

Don't know, but I'll bet it were pretty close to the same amount in GOLD by weight as one made today would cost.
Think about it.
½ oz gold in 1810 = Pretty nice rifle
½ oz gold in 2011 = pretty nice rifle
I'm sure there was a good amount of barter going on back then also.
Jon D

 

[ohiosam]

I've heard a Colt SAA in the 1870's was cost a $20 gold(1oz) piece. Today MSRP on a real Colt SAA is $1300. Pretty much spot on for 1 oz of gold.

 

[David W.]

Don't know, but I'll bet it were pretty close to the same amount in GOLD by weight as one made today would cost.
Think about it.
½ oz gold in 1810 = Pretty nice rifle
½ oz gold in 2011 = pretty nice rifle
I'm sure there was a good amount of barter going on back then also.
Jon D

Sometimes they would take a pig or a goat!

 

[ike1518]

Sometimes they would take a pig or a goat!

Hey, let's keep family out of this discussion! :rotf:

 

[bowkill]

i would give 2 of each...

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I know a new Hawken was $26, and that was considered really expensive.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I cann't remember where I read it , but in the fur trade era A goood rifle cost from two to three months wages for a craftsman, up to a year for an unskilled worker. Trade guns were cheaper! :hmm:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Tough times.

We have it pretty easy.

 

[buford87]

I don't remember where I read it , but I read about a gunsmith in Kentucky who would trade a rifle for 40 acres of uncleared land . He was the largest land owner around but at that time the land was "dirt cheap" ....................watch yer top knot.................

 

[Dphar]

₤4-6 Using the ENGLISH pound I would think.
₤5-11 in Colonial currency.
Its probably impossible to equate this the any modern currency since the Colonial Currency was???
And the pound was artificially devalued back in the 1970s I think.

See "British Military Flintlock Rifles" by Bailey the first chapter on Indian rifles has a lot of info on prices of rifles in America during the Revolution and a lot of other info as well.
Dan

 

[Dphar]

Don't know, but I'll bet it were pretty close to the same amount in GOLD by weight as one made today would cost.
Think about it.
½ oz gold in 1810 = Pretty nice rifle
½ oz gold in 2011 = pretty nice rifle
I'm sure there was a good amount of barter going on back then also.
Jon D

Sometimes they would take a pig or a goat!

You can't buy a rifle from me for 1/2 ounce of gold.
Leonard Reedy was getting 12-16 dollars for rifles in the 1820s.
Gold was about $19 an ounce circa 1825-1830.
A 20 dollar gold piece was an ounce of gold.

So a 1/2 ounce would have purchased a low end rifle at best.
I get more than 1/2 ounce for a pistol. But all things considered there is no way to equate 1825 prices with today inflation has screwed things up so bad I don't see how its possible.
Since we went off the hard money standard everything has gone nuts a shirt that cost 35 or 50 cents in the 1930s is now 30-50 bucks if made in the USA as well. Gold is less than 90 times what it cost in 1825. The SHIRT? If 50c vs 50 bucks its 100 times more expensive. 50 bucks is close to what the higher end FOREIGN MADE Carhart will cost. If we go to the lower end 35 cents perhaps then we have the 35-40 dollar shirt.

Dan

 

[Coot]

If this is in the wrong section please move it, but after watching the "Williamsburg Gunsmith" video we got to wondering what it would cost to have a flintlock such as that one made back in the day? Would it had been a strictly cash transaction, part barter or what?

Hard currency (silver & gold coins (English, French, Dutch and Spanish)) was not always readily available so transactions based on credit, tobacco or whiskey were not unusual. Barter was common esp in rural areas. I cannot put my hands on the source right now but recall reading an account where the buyer did not have cash or goods to trade & the the gunsmith accepted the buyer's labor (cutting down trees on the gunsmith's land and splitting them into something like a thousand :shocked2: fence rails) as payment for a rifle. Perhaps someone else will remember the source.

 

[rafterob]

I visited Williamsburg gunshop in 1976 and at that time they told me the equivalent of one of their mid-level rifles was $7000, that was probably not the typical working man's rifle but something a merchant might own. Moderately adorned with nice carvings but not super elaborate. they said the average working man would pay 1/2 to 2/3 his annual earnings for a rifle.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I visited Williamsburg gunshop in 1976 and at that time they told me the equivalent of one of their mid-level rifles was $7000, that was probably not the typical working man's rifle but something a merchant might own. Moderately adorned with nice carvings but not super elaborate. they said the average working man would pay 1/2 to 2/3 his annual earnings for a rifle.

They made $50 a year?

 

[gearheart]

That's why they had half pennies and farthings. Even a penny was a big chunk of change.

 

[jsn]

I had a half penny from 1835 but sold it off for current project also have 2 half pence from 1721 and 1769 pretty interesting to hold what they held back then! :thumbsup:

 

[hirocker]

William Greener, in his 1846 book "The Science of Gunnery", lists prices from his own gun shop. His guns were considered to be above average in construction and price for the time. For a high-quality double rifle, he charges 40 guineas, and for a single-barreled musket, one guinea. There were also shops charging as little as 1/2 guinea for a common musket.

In England, a gold guinea (containing 0.235 ounces of pure gold) per month was considered a good salary for a skilled workman or a cleric. A guinea was the equivalent of $5 in American specie.

So - for $5 you could get a cheap smoothbore musket FOB Birmingham; I suspect an American-made rifle was a bit more because the Birmingham shops were the most efficient in the world at that time.

Hope this helps.

 

[William O.]

William Greener, in his 1846 book "The Science of Gunnery", lists prices from his own gun shop. His guns were considered to be above average in construction and price for the time. For a high-quality double rifle, he charges 40 guineas, and for a single-barreled musket, one guinea. There were also shops charging as little as 1/2 guinea for a common musket.

In England, a gold guinea (containing 0.235 ounces of pure gold) per month was considered a good salary for a skilled workman or a cleric. A guinea was the equivalent of $5 in American specie.

So - for $5 you could get a cheap smoothbore musket FOB Birmingham; I suspect an American-made rifle was a bit more because the Birmingham shops were the most efficient in the world at that time.

Hope this helps.

:thumbsup:

 

[hanshi]

It would actually cost about the same in real money. In 1880 a $20 gold piece would buy you a Winchester or a fine pair of handmade boots and $20 cash would do it as well. Today $20 cash won't buy you manure but a $20 gold piece will still get you the rifle or the boots. Thank inflation.