British money calculation from Trollope's "The Warden"

[hogarth]

I’ve just started reading “The Warden” by Trollope, and I’m a bit confused by a comment regarding money.

In the book, there are twelve old-age pensioners who are being paid 1 shilling and sixpence per day. But elsewhere, it’s mentioned that their pension is costing 62 pounds, 11 shillings and fourpence per year.

That doesn’t make any sense: From my calculations, they should each receive 27 pounds, 7 shillings and sixpence each per annum, or 328 pounds, 10 shillings in total.

Am I missing something obvious, like some kind of joke?

[Bryan_Ekers]

I can’t make it out, either, but maybe the 1s6d is their “per diem” and the cost of housing and feeding them is 35# over and above that for each of them

Also, from the wiki summary of the novel, John Bold “launches a campaign to expose the disparity in the apportionment of the charity’s income between its object, the bedesmen, and its officer, Mr Harding”. Maybe the deal is that Harding is keeping the 35# for himself.

It’s unclear to me if the 62#11s4d if the total cost for all the pensioners, or the cost for each of them.

[hogarth]

@Bryan_Ekers

I can’t make it out, either, but maybe the 1d6s is their “per diem” and the cost of housing and feeding them is 35# over and above that.

Also, from the wiki summary of the novel, John Bold “launches a campaign to expose the disparity in the apportionment of the charity’s income between its object, the bedesmen, and its officer, Mr Harding”. Maybe the deal is that Harding is keeping the 35# for himself.

The pension is taken out of an annual income of 800 pounds, so there’s plenty left over for Mr Harding (hence the mini-scandal).

[hogarth]

Actually, it seems that the 800 pound income is after expenses. Here’s a sentence that supposedly sums up the situation.

These old men should, by rights, have one hundred pounds a year instead of one shilling and sixpence a day, and the warden should have two hundred or three hundred pounds instead of eight hundred pounds.

That’s vaguely in line with the idea that the men are receiving 62.57 pounds p.a.; increasing it to 100 pounds p.a. would cost the warden 450 pounds p.a., leaving him with 350 pounds. “Two hundred or three hundred” is a pretty vague estimate, but it’s within an order of magnitude.

I still don’t know how 1s 6d per day translates to 62 pounds 11s 4d per year, unless they’re living on a planet where the year is 834.22 days long. Maybe he just screwed up the math and never noticed it?