Comparative historical values:

In yesterday's The Times, a book review mentioning Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, says that he rented a house near Fleet Street "for £30 a year -- £4,000 in today's money".

I am sure there are all sorts of reliable calculations, of inflation &c, to arrive at this then·&·now value comparison. But it doesn't seem to work in all circumstances. For example, in Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen whose life overlapped with Johnson's, Lady Bertram, talking of the tip she had given on his departure to a visiting nephew, says "I gave him only £10. Sir Thomas said it would be enough." But we surely can't imagine her contemporary equivalent saying "I only gave him £1,300".

So is there a formula which would cover both these comparisons? -- the actual inflationary and the social-expectational, as one might put it.

≈≈Michael≈≈