What is a good source to find exchange rates for about 100 years ago? I was reading a short story (The Fortunate Painter, 1906) recently by W. Somerset Maugham, and in it he discusses a painting that is sold in the USA for an artist in Paris. Since Maugham was British he cites pounds sterling, dollars and francs almost interchangeably and it gets a tad confusing. It made me curious what the dollar was to the pound in that era, or even the franc to the pound.
Also, is it safe to assume that, in general, currencies didn’t fluctuate in the days prior to instantaneous telecommunications, and as communications speed and detail increased, currency fluctuations increased?
In those days, currencies were generally freely convertible into gold; in essence, there was one worldwide currency (gold), with various local names. E.g., a “dollar” could be considered the American term for “1/20.67 oz. troy of fine gold”.
The pound sterling was worth about 0.235 oz. troy (£1 = $4.86; 1 oz. troy = £3 17s. 10½d.). The franc was worth 0.290322 oz. troy (also the value of the Belgian and Swiss francs, the Italian lira, and the Greek drachma).
In the good old days of the gold standard, which became fashionable in the Western world in the early 1900s, rates of exchange hardly fluctuated. The central banks of the various nations pegged the currency value to gold by defining their unit of currency as a certain amount of gold; this pretty much fixed the relative values of the gold-backed currencies to each other, at least as long as the central bank keeps up the standard and is trusted by people to have sufficient gold reserves in its vaults. If rates fluctuate too much, investors will find a way to make profit by shipping gold from country A to country B, and the discrepancy will soon be levelled.
I did some research, but could not find a website that includes detailed tables of gold rates; however, I found one that mentions that “prior to the 1930s”, the UK defined its pound as 113.0016 grains of gold, with 480 grains in a pound, while the US dollar was 23.22 grains. This gives you a sterling/dollar rate of 113.0016 / 23.22 = 4.86 dollars to the sterling. The closest thing I could find.
I remember reading a book from the 1950s, however, that included such a table; IIRC at this time even the Soviet ruble was pegged to Au, which I found hard to believe. I’ll try to find that book.
Thanks, that helps explain why Maugham would assume his readers would know the exchange rates, and answers my second question as well.
Spoilers if you plan on reading the story
FWIW, in the story the artist is destitute. He needs 300 francs for his rent, plus wants to have 5000 pounds so that he can marry his love who is a rich English girl. A friend buys a copy of an impressionist original, which is later sold in the USA for 60,000 dollars. Some of this money is used to defray the cost of import, some is kept by the American dealer, but enough is sent back so that the friend can give the artist 5000 sterling. I was just curious how much the other two profited on the deal. It sounds like the 5000 pounds would have been worth roughly $23-25,000 dollars.