For general information, some UK prices from about 100 years ago, and how they have changed in real terms. The 1914 actual price is shown in beige - the purple shaded figure is the price these goods would have been, in 1914, had their price been in line with what they cost in 2000. For example BUTTER actually cost 6p per 250g in 1914 - in 2000 it was the equivalent, in 1914 prices, of just 1.46p / 250g. Therefore BUTTER has become about 4x cheaper over the period 1914 to 2000, in real terms. Milk has become about 40% cheaper - the farmers will know all about that ! Sugar in 2000 was just under half the price it was in 1914, in RPI-adjusted terms.
Cigarettes (not shown for 1914, but for other years) have become more expensive in real terms
Prices for other years, and their equivalents if their price had tracked the UK RPI to year 2000 and afterwards, avalaible at
http://fooddeserts.org/images/000price.htm
UK prices, 1914,
BREAD - 800g sliced white bread
cost 1p (0.912p).
BUTTER - 250g of butter cost 6p (1.46p).
CHEESE - 250g of cheddar cheese
cost 2p (2.06p).
EGGS - 6 eggs cost 3p (1.438p).
MILK - 1 pint of pasteurised milk cost 1p (0.596p).
POTATOES - 1 kg old potatoes cost 1p (0.994p).
SUGAR - 1 kg granulated sugar
cost 2p (0.983p).
TEA - 125g of loose tea cost 2p (1.39p).
In 1914 Marks and Spencer took over the London Penny
Bazaar Company. Cadburys chocolate bars cost 1d, 22p in 2003. It also cost 1d
to post a letter anywhere in the UK, and the Manchester Guardian cost 1d.Thomas
Cook, travel agents, could arrange a 15-day Grand Tour through Switzerland for
£30 (£1,350 in 2003), and the middle classes could go to the Italian Riviera
for two weeks for £14 (£630 in 2003). Tours of the Indian Empire cost 70
guineas (£73 10s, or £3,300 in 2003). In 1914 the General Post Office (GPO)
took over the telephone exchange in Portsmouth, leaving Hull as the only area
with its own exchange. Doctors at Middlesex Hospital first successfully treated
cancer with radium, and Guglielmo Marconi announced he could light a lamp six
miles away by means of wireless power. The Ford model T cost £220 (£10,400 in
2003); it was made at Trafford Park, Manchester, and each car took 12 hours to
build.
500g of streaky bacon cost
5p. 500g of beef cost 5p. 500g of margarine cost 3p.
Dr Hillary J. Shaw
Visiting Fellow - Centre for Urban Research on Austerity
Department of Politics and Public Policy
De Montfort University
LE1 9BH
www.fooddeserts.org