Price/Cost Indexes from 1875 to 1989

Project Gutenberg's Price/Cost Indexes from 1875 to 1989, by United States

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Title: Price/Cost Indexes from 1875 to 1989 Estimated to 2010

Author: United States

Release Date: June 20, 2008 [EBook #88]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRICE INDEXES FROM 1875 TO 1989 ***

Price/Cost Indexes from 1875 to 1929

by

United States

October, 1993 expanded for release in November, 1993

[Originally published as a column entitled:

THE RATE OF CHANGE OF THE RATE OF CHANGE by Michael S. Hart

In The Electronic Journal of Virtual Culture]

WHILE IT APPEARS THAT COMPUTERS ARE AN INCREDIBLE DEAL THEY ARE REALLY TWICE AS GOOD A DEAL AS IT SEEMS TO BE

COMPUTERS INCREASED IN VALUE TWICE AS MUCH AS IT APPEARS SINCE THE FIRST CONSUMER HARD DRIVES BECAME AVAILABLE IN APPROXIMATELY 1979

WHERE DOES OUR MONEY GO?

Many of you are aware that the $3,000 you spent on computers last year could be replaced by $2,000 spent today. However, only recently have I actually purchased computer gear that I bought with dollars that were only half as valuable as those with which one of my drives was purchased in 1979.

Many of you are aware that the average personal computer was $5,000 - $10,000 some 10 - 15 years ago when Apples and IBMs first appeared on the scene, but you might not be aware of a trend beyond the price reduction that makes today's computer prices an even better bargain in comparison.

In fact, computers today are TWICE as good a bargain as they appear in comparisons with those early computers, and it was already looking as if they were bargains beyond all belief.

In earlier articles I mentioned the fact that today's cheapy 486 DX2/66 computers were 100 times as fast as the originals from IBM, and were likely to also have 100 time as much hard drive storage. [After all, the original PC didn't even have hard drives, and still cost a fortune.]

Here are a few examples to jog your memory:

These are bare bones prices for the computer systems; when filled out with color monitors, printers, ports, modems, and the rest of an average computer system, these prices usually doubled, and the prices I usually quote as modern comparison figures include VGA, printer, modem, mouse, and software.

1979 Konan 5M External Hard Drive Kit for Apples $3,000 1981 PC-DOS CP/M 1-Floppy 128K-RAM serial-parallel $2,000 1983 PC-XT added 3 slots and 10M hard drive $3,600 1983 PC to XT Upgrade kit with 5M ST-506 Hard Drive $1,500 1984 PC-AT 1.2M Floppy 256K-RAM no ports 3x faster $4,000 1984 PC-AT Enhanced added 20M hard drive no ports $5,800

[These two Hard Drive Kits both included the ST-506 drives— but the Apple was External while the IBM was Internal: both were from third-party vendors.]

Back in those days extra floppy drives from Apple or IBM for around $325 to $475 respectively [and don't forget that many of these floppies were single sided and held around 150K but we only tend to remember the double sided floppies. If your memory includes flippies you know what I mean. (Flippies: single sided floppy disks which were notched so you could do a flip-over with the floppy, and use the other side, which was supposed to be unusable but which in most cases was just as good as the side you actually paid for. Don't forget the floppy disks started at $10 each, with dollars that were the equivalent of $2 in 1993 dollars: so, each time you punched a notch and turned one over, you basically gained $20 in the money we use today. You then also needed only half as much, in terms of physical shelf space, to store as much data. It might stagger the present day mind to actually think of that monstrous storage problem we had when we wanted to store any huge books, such as the Bible, on single sided floppies.

The two points I want to make here are that for the cheapest of these machine prices back then, you can now get a machine that is 100 times faster with 100 times the disk space: and that the same is true for the most expensive AND that prices today are actually half what they appear to be in comparison to the prices listed above.

So, when you spend $3,000 on computer gear today, you are in fact only spending half as much as was spent back in '79 for the Konan drive. . .you are really only spending $1,500 from 1979. . .due to changes in the value of the dollar as per an assortment of Consumer Price Index figures [none of which is in agreement with any of the others, so you are encouraged a bit to look up additional information on the subject. These figures [below] are presented only to provide a continuum to make comparisons. Actually these figures are a conservative estimate [as most government figures seem to be [example, no double digit inflation for any year since 1947, which was an extremely good year, by the way.]

So, while other prices were rising to make up for weakenings in the dollar. . .you are probably aware that your expenses, in general, have just about exactly doubled since 1979, when we bought that first hard drive for $3,000. Those $3,000 in a bank account that created no real profit other than enough interest to keep up with the Cost of Living increases, would now be $6,000 and would buy you a computer more powerful and with more RAM and hard drive space than most of you want. A Pentium with 8 megabytes of RAM and adding several gigabytes of hard drive, or a 486 with even more RAM and hard drive.

While the prices of everything else had been going up at 5%, 6%, 7%, 8%, 9% a year, the price of computers has gone down, at about 33% per year. . .a truly astonishing rate that lets you buy something hundreds of times better for less than the price was just 10 or 15 years ago.

Below you will find a short index of the computers we bought since 1979, and then a price index from 1875 to 2010 in case you want to look up some prices mentioned in certain years a decade or a century ago would actually be today.

For example, a teenager watching Roger Rabbit mentioned that the $100 Bob Hoskins received for working on the case was an extremely low figure. However, an examination of the figure below for 1947 will reveal that prices then were about 17.5% which would make Hoskins' fee about $600 in our 1993 dollars we use today. . .even if the physical dollars are the same.

So, what happens to the value that was lost from our dollars that do not buy as much by a factor of 17.5% since 1947 ?

Let's imagine for a moment that we are financial wizards and have all the financial connections open to such wizards; the early 1970's are a perfect example: Nixon is in office, and he releases the dollar from the $35 per ounce price supports the dollar has had since Roosevelt took us off the standards of direct gold exchange to end the Depression in the 1930's.

As an example, we send a million of our dollars to somewhere we CAN buy gold [it was illegal then for US citizens to have gold, unless they were coin collectors or worked gold in the professions, such as dentistry, jewelry, etc.]

So, we have bought a million dollars worth of gold at around $35 per ounce, which was a pretty fixed price at the time.

Now, the price restrictions of $35 per ounce are removed and the price of gold goes up to $755 per ounce, just about what it did during the next few months after the price release.

Now our gold is worth 21 times as many dollars as it was, so we now can sell the gold and get 21 million dollars.

When we spend this 21 million dollars, we are competing with all the other dollars in the marketplace, and prices have to go up as a result, because there are now more dollars but no more anything else. . .so dollars get cheap, and all dollars everywhere give up a percentage of their value to pay for an increase in the number of dollars WE have. So, if all these dollars lose 5% of their value, then we can buy a 20 million dollar share of the future with our 21 million dollars while everyone else loses 5% of the money they let sit in pockets, under the mattress, or wherever.

Half of the value of every dollar disappeared from 1979-1993 [a period in which the Cost/Price Indexes rose at about 6%].

And those 1979 dollars would buy only half as much as a 1969 dollar bought, when prices were rising even more quickly.

And those 1969 dollars were buying only half of what dollars bought in 1947.

Here are the doubling years:

2010 1993 1979 1969 1947 1916 and 1933 had similar costs, about half those of 1947; these fluctuations were caused by WW I and Depression 1898 was also a very low point, but prices before this had been quite stable by today's standards, with 1989 and 1899 being the only two exceptions: which happened to cancel each other out fairly well

Thus, approximately, prices in 2010 will be double what is the case in 1993, just as 1993 was double 1979; 1979 which was double 1969, which was double 1947, which was double a spread around WW I and the Depression.

With 1993 labeled as 1.00000 the value of a dollar which is expected to be spent in 2010 will be 0.50000 or fifty cents.

2010 $1 buys $0.50 worth of 1993 dollars

1993 $1 buys $1.00 worth of 1993 dollars

1979 $1 buys $2.00 worth of 1993 dollars

1969 $1 buys $4.00 worth of 1993 dollars

1947 $1 buys $8.00 worth of 1993 dollars

1916 and 1933 $1 buys $16.00 worth of 1993 dollars

1898 $1 buys $32.00 worth of 1993 dollars

[These are obviously gross approximations: more exact figures are presented below.]

Here are some less conservative estimates, from other sources:

Based on an estimated 17% increase from 1989 to 1993 [4%/year]

Prices doubled as follows:

1982 to 1993 1973 to 1982 1950 to 1973

1993 1.17xxxx 1978 0.573016 1968 0.299207 1946 0.153972

Note fluctuations for WWI, WWII, and Depression: these come close to these doublings, but not for a permanent trend.

1916 0.090478 1915 0.075394

1898 0.047620 Was the lowest trend:

which provides for the widest possible span of 1993 1.17xxxx to 1898 0.047620

with prices being some 25 times higher in 1993 than 1898, for price increase of 2400% over those 95 years.

THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PRICE INDEX FROM 1875 TO 1989

[With estimates up to and including 2010.]

This part contains a short chart of all the prices paid by the Project Gutenberg supporters for drives from 1971 to 1993, and then charts of the Consumer Price Indexes from 1875 to 1989.

The Project Gutenberg Drive Price Chart is about one page long and is followed by a series of charts for each year from 1875- 1989, with a few additional estimates for 1990-1993.

Many of you have seen the figures I have presented as evidence

of the fact that current trends lead to HOLDING THE LIBRARY OF

CONGRESS IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND WITHIN THE AVERAGE LIFETIME.

[Of course if they will let you HAVE the Library of Congress].

These figures range from the first 5 megabyte hard drives used in our very first mainframe, through the first 5M Apple drive, to the same drive running on an IBM, to our current 1.2G drive that cost less than ANY of our previous drives and has storage for twice as much data.

Of course, since I used only the real prices we paid for drive after drive, it was only a matter of time until the cost/price index would begin to play an important role, and we now have a database of drive prices long enough that the $3,000 price for the Konan 5M External ST506 Apple Hard Drive Kit in 1979 was a mere half of what it would be in today's 1993 dollars. Thus:

The first 5 1/4 hard drive we got [Seagate-ST506] should be at $6,000 in today's pricing index, or, conversely, we should see that the $850 we paid for a Toshiba 1.2G drive is really only:

$425 per 1200 megabytes. . .in 1979 dollars.

The Database of Project Gutenberg Drive Costs:

1971 $50,000 per 5M at $10,000 for the removable 5M drive chassis each 5M added was about $1500 1979 $3000 per 5M at $600/M [Same ST506 drive as I got in 1983, but 1980 set up as external drive for the Apple] 1981 Prices unstable early on 1982

Prices VERY stable now, falling by about 1/3 per year.

1983 $1500 per 5M at $300/M (Please see footnotes directly below)* 1984 $1950 per 10M at $195/M (only Seagate drive in 1985 Blue Book)* 1985 $1500 per 20M at $75/M (some disagreement about the year here) 1986 $1500 per 40M at $37.50/M 1986 $1595 per 80M at $20/M —> (IBM listed in Blue Book as 1984 price) 1987 $1500 per 80M at $19/M (but I never saw until two years later) 1988 $1500 per 120M at $12.50/M 1989 $1500 per 200M at $7.50/M 1990 $1500 per 300M at $5/M 1992 $1000 per 1000M at $1/M [In Summer 1993 we got a Toshiba 1200 Meg] 1993 $666 per 1000M at $.67/M [Actual cost was $.71/M at $850 per 1200M] 1994 $444 per 1000M at $.44/M [IBM in 1993 was $.50/M @ $4000 per 8000M] 1994 $296 per 1000M at $.30/M 1995 $198 per 1000M at $.20/M 1996 $132 per 1000M at $.13/M 1997 $88 per 1000M at $.08/M 1998 $58 per 1000M at $.06/M 1999 $39 per 1000M at $.04/M 2000 $26 per 1000M at $.03/M 2001 $17 per 1000M at $.02/M 2002 $12 per 1000M at $.01/M

Disclaimer: most of these are personal recollections, but are close to estimates I have looked up, as below. [How is it that 1985 and 1990 can seem so LONG ago!?!]

*Suggested resale price was $771 in 1983, still over $150/M

*(by the 1987 edition, resale price was $89, only $9/M)

*Shugart and Tandon were not listed

*IBM DID list a 20M for $1595, only $80/M, couldn't find one

*IBM listed 360K floppies at $425 and 1.2M floppies at $650

*floppies dropping at 33%/yr are now under $100, of course,

*IBM 512K RAM cards were $1125, 256K RAM cards were $295

*IBM 128K RAM cards were $350

THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PRICE INDEX FROM 1875 TO 2010

How to use the chart, first set of examples:

The price in current 1993 dollars for any year is found in the first column. Thus you can see that a one dollar item from 1993 will cost about $1.95 in 2010.

The value of the dollars used in any particular year would be found in the second column [value compared to 1993]. A dollar in 2010 will be worth about $.51 1993 dollars while a dollar from 1978-9 would be worth about $2.00 now.

THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PRICE INDEX FROM 1875 TO 2010

How to use the chart, second set of examples:

To remind you that these figures are presented ONLY as an indicator and not as anything approaching reality, here are an additional set of examples from a different report, for several sample years. You can easily see [where we have integrated them below in the 1989 set of figures] that not only are the adjustments sometimes quite high, but that figures from different reports aren't always even remotely close to each other.

As an example, while working on these figures I noticed a lack of a period of double digit inflation commonly referred to in most all recent reports on these economic trends. I checked this with local sources in the field, and was given the following figures which did include [just barely] some double digit inflation, but only for a few years of the 70's and early 80's.

In short, continue to beware of statistics, and please be advised a bit that while these figures MAY have a certain consistency, within the columns, that there relation to reality is probably far from an intensely accurate reflection of real prices over the century.

***

Additional figures from:

Economic Report of the President

base year 82-84

D-D indicates prices from the end of one year the end of the previous year. . .December to December is the official terminology.

The adjusted rise is the percentage equivalent to the change in adjusted prices.

% is Dec to Dec on unadjusted indexes %2 is year to adjusted

     Adjusted Rise

Year Price D-D Adj%

1991 136.2 3.1 4.2* 1990 130.7 6.1 5.4 1989 124.0 4.6 4.8 1988 118.3 4.4 4.1 1987 113.6 4.4 3.6 1986 109.6 1.1 1.9 1985 107.6 3.8 3.6 1984 103.9 3.9 4.3 1983 99.6 3.8 3.2

***

THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PRICE INDEX FROM 1875 TO 1989

YEAR: 1989

1993 1.169856 [based on 1989 as 1.000000 base year] 1992 1.124864 [and based on 4.0000% inflation rate] 1991 1.081600 1990 1.040000

Prices will double from 1989 to 2007 at 4.0000%

Prices will double from 1989 to 2012 at 3.0000%

Average price rise for 20 year period 1970-1989 is about 6% [5.94%]

Average price rise for 30 year period 1960-1989 is about 5% [4.89%]

Average price rise for 40 year period 1950-1989 is about 4% [4.32%]

1991 3.1 4.2* 1990 6.1 5.4

Old$/1989$ 1989$/Old$ Yearly % D-D Adj

1989 1.000000 1.000000 3.8744% 4.6 4.8 1988 0.962701 1.038744 3.3218% 4.4 4.1 1987 0.931750 1.073249 3.1640% 4.4 3.6 1986 0.903174 1.107206 2.6144% 1.1 1.9 1985 0.880163 1.136153 2.9714% 3.8 3.6 1984 0.854764 1.169913 3.6577% 3.9 4.3 1983 0.824603 1.212705 3.8998% 3.8 3.2 1982 0.793652 1.259998 6.3832% 3.8 6.2 1981 0.746032 1.340426 9.6842% 8.9 10.3 1980 0.680163 1.470235 9.0331% 12.5 13.5 1979 0.623814 1.603043 8.8650% 13.3 11.3 1978 0.573016 1.745153 7.2812% 1977 0.534125 1.872221 6.6559% 1976 0.500793 1.996834 6.4072% 1975 0.470638 2.124776 9.8160% 6.9 9.1 1974 0.428570 2.333344 9.0908% 12.3 11.0 1973 0.392856 2.545462 6.4508% 1972 0.369049 2.709666 4.7305% 1971 0.352380 2.837848 5.7132% 1970 0.333336 2.999980 5.5271% 1969 0.315877 3.165791 5.5712% 1968 0.299207 3.342164 5.0148% 1967 0.284919 3.509767 2.5719% 1966 0.277775 3.600034 3.5483% 1965 0.268256 3.727776 2.7360% 1964 0.261112 3.829768 1.5426% 1963 0.257146 3.888845 1.5695% 1962 0.253172 3.949879 2.2421% 1961 0.247620 4.038441 0.9710% 1960 0.245239 4.077655 1.6441% 1959 0.241272 4.144695 2.3583% 1958 0.235714 4.242437 2.0622% 1957 0.230951 4.329926 3.5573% 1956 0.223018 4.483953 3.3094% 1955 0.215873 4.632344 3.4226% 1954 0.208729 4.790892 1.5425% 1953 0.205559 4.864789 1.5700% 1952 0.202381 4.941167 1.5950% 1951 0.199204 5.019980 5.0181% 1950 0.189685 5.271890 1.7036% 1949 0.186508 5.361703 -0.4250% 1948 0.187304 5.338916 6.7885% 1947 0.175397 5.701346 13.9152% 8.8 14.4 1946 0.153972 6.494699 22.7889% 18.1 8.3 1945 0.125395 7.974769 3.2667% 1944 0.121429 8.235278 1.3228% 1943 0.119843 8.344216 2.7235% 1942 0.116666 8.571470 6.5229% 1941 0.109522 9.130582 6.1527% 1940 0.103174 9.692363 2.3626% 1939 0.100793 9.921357 -1.5485% 1938 0.102378 9.767725 -1.5313% 1937 0.103970 9.618155 3.9665% 1936 0.100003 9.999663 0.0000% 1935 0.100003 9.999663 3.2815% 1934 0.096826 10.327806 8.9329% 1933 0.088886 11.250379 -2.6092% 1932 0.091267 10.956833 -11.5405% 1931 0.103174 9.692363 -8.4521% 1930 0.112699 8.873159 -2.7364% 1929 0.115870 8.630356 0.0000% 1928 0.115870 8.630356 -0.6823% 1927 0.116666 8.571470 0.0000% 1926 0.116666 8.571470 -2.0003% 1925 0.119047 8.400011 0.6732% 1924 0.118251 8.456558 2.0552% 1923 0.115870 8.630356 0.0000% 1922 0.115870 8.630356 2.8134% 1921 0.112699 8.873159 -7.1889% 1920 0.121429 8.235278 -13.0687% 1919 0.139684 7.159036 15.7924% 1918 0.120633 8.289621 14.2839% 1917 0.105555 9.473701 16.6642% 1916 0.090478 11.052416 20.0072% 1915 0.075394 13.263690 9.1939% 1914 0.069046 14.483146 2.3500% 1913 0.067460 14.823500 1.1941% 1912 0.066664 15.000506 1.1982% 1911 0.065875 15.180236 2.4767% 1910 0.064283 15.556197 0.0000% 1909 0.064283 15.556197 3.8470% 1908 0.061902 16.154643 0.0000% 1907 0.061902 16.154643 -2.5074% 1906 0.063494 15.749575 5.2679% 1905 0.060316 16.579242 2.6993% 1904 0.058731 17.026763 0.0000% 1903 0.058731 17.026763 1.3740% 1902 0.057935 17.260713 2.8134% 1901 0.056350 17.746319 1.4329% 1900 0.055554 18.000607 0.0000% 1899 0.055554 18.000607 16.6596% 1898 0.047620 20.999433 -10.4415% 1897 0.053172 18.806775 0.0000% 1896 0.053172 18.806775 -1.4750% 1895 0.053968 18.529375 1.4971% 1894 0.053172 18.806775 -1.4750% 1893 0.053968 18.529375 -5.5601% 1892 0.057146 17.499115 0.0000% 1891 0.057146 17.499115 -1.3624% 1890 0.057935 17.260713 0.0000% 1889 0.057935 17.260713 -2.6745% 1888 0.059527 16.799071 0.0000% 1887 0.059527 16.799071 1.3554% 1886 0.058731 17.026763 1.3740% 1885 0.057935 17.260713 -1.3554% 1884 0.058731 17.026763 -1.3373% 1883 0.059527 16.799071 -5.0570% 1882 0.062698 15.949537 -3.6592% 1881 0.065079 15.365917 2.4968% 1880 0.063494 15.749575 0.0000% 1879 0.063494 15.749575 5.2679% 1878 0.060316 16.579242 -3.7981% 1877 0.062698 15.949537 -5.9502% 1876 0.066664 15.000506 -1.1800% 1875 0.067460 14.823500

BASE YEAR: 1993 [1993 dollars = 1.000000]

Year Year/1993 1993/Year Year/Previous Year

[Keep the above line for reference on other years]

2010 1.947900 0.513373 4% Est. 2009 1.872980 0.533908 4% Est. 2008 1.800943 0.555265 4% Est. 2007 1.731676 0.577475 4% Est. 2006 1.665072 0.600574 4% Est. 2005 1.601031 0.624597 4% Est. 2004 1.539454 0.649581 4% Est. 2003 1.480243 0.675565 4% Est. 2002 1.423312 0.702587 4% Est. 2001 1.368568 0.730691 4% Est. 2000 1.315931 0.759918 4% Est. 1999 1.265318 0.790315 4% Est. 1998 1.216653 0.821927 4% Est. 1997 1.169858 0.854805 4% Est. 1996 1.124864 0.888997 4% Est. 1995 1.081600 0.924557 4% Est. 1994 1.040000 0.961539 4% Est. 1993 1.000000 1.000000 4% Est. 1992 0.961538 1.040000 4% Est. 1991 0.924556 1.081600 4% Est. 1990 0.888996 1.124864 4% Est. 1989 0.854804 1.169859 3.8744% 1988 0.822921 1.215184 3.3218% 1987 0.796464 1.255550 3.1640% 1986 0.772037 1.295275 2.6144% 1985 0.752367 1.329139 2.9715% 1984 0.730656 1.368634 3.6576% 1983 0.704874 1.418694 3.8998% 1982 0.678417 1.474020 6.3831% 1981 0.637711 1.568108 9.6843% 1980 0.581406 1.719969 9.0330% 1979 0.533239 1.875333 8.8650% 1978 0.489816 2.041582 7.2813% 1977 0.456572 2.190234 6.6558% 1976 0.428080 2.336013 6.4073% 1975 0.402303 2.485688 9.8159% 1974 0.366343 2.729680 9.0909% 1973 0.335815 2.977832 6.4509% 1972 0.315465 3.169929 4.7304% 1971 0.301216 3.319879 5.7132% 1970 0.284937 3.509549 5.5272% 1969 0.270013 3.703527 5.5714% 1968 0.255763 3.909865 5.0148% 1967 0.243550 4.105935 2.5719% 1966 0.237443 4.211535 3.5485% 1965 0.229306 4.360980 2.7360% 1964 0.223200 4.480296 1.5423% 1963 0.219809 4.549396 1.5697% 1962 0.216412 4.620807 2.2421% 1961 0.211667 4.724412 0.9709% 1960 0.209631 4.770281 1.6442% 1959 0.206240 4.848714 2.3579% 1958 0.201489 4.963044 2.0623% 1957 0.197418 5.065399 3.5571% 1956 0.190637 5.245581 3.3098% 1955 0.184529 5.419200 3.4226% 1954 0.178422 5.604679 1.5421% 1953 0.175713 5.691111 1.5703% 1952 0.172996 5.780478 1.5948% 1951 0.170280 5.872668 5.0183% 1950 0.162143 6.167377 1.7034% 1949 0.159428 6.272433 -0.4250% 1948 0.160108 6.245777 6.7886% 1947 0.149930 6.669778 13.9149% 1946 0.131616 7.597868 22.7896% 1945 0.107188 9.329391 3.2661% 1944 0.103798 9.634099 1.3234% 1943 0.102442 9.761596 2.7232% 1942 0.099727 10.027420 6.5229% 1941 0.093620 10.681498 6.1527% 1940 0.088194 11.338700 2.3623% 1939 0.086158 11.606550 -1.5482% 1938 0.087513 11.426859 -1.5312% 1937 0.088874 11.251890 3.9669% 1936 0.085483 11.698239 0.0000% 1935 0.085483 11.698239 3.2811% 1934 0.082767 12.082075 8.9328% 1933 0.075980 13.161341 -2.6088% 1932 0.078015 12.817985 -11.5407% 1931 0.088194 11.338700 -8.4517% 1930 0.096336 10.380385 -2.7367% 1929 0.099046 10.096306 0.0000% 1928 0.099046 10.096306 -0.6823% 1927 0.099727 10.027420 0.0000% 1926 0.099727 10.027420 -2.0001% 1925 0.101762 9.826867 0.6731% 1924 0.101081 9.893016 2.0549% 1923 0.099046 10.096306 0.0000% 1922 0.099046 10.096306 2.8137% 1921 0.096336 10.380385 -7.1894% 1920 0.103798 9.634099 -13.0688% 1919 0.119402 8.375039 15.7925% 1918 0.103118 9.697670 14.2845% 1917 0.090229 11.082933 16.6637% 1916 0.077341 12.929762 20.0069% 1915 0.064447 15.516606 9.1939% 1914 0.059021 16.943183 2.3510% 1913 0.057665 17.341521 1.1940% 1912 0.056985 17.548587 1.1977% 1911 0.056310 17.758770 2.4765% 1910 0.054949 18.198575 0.0000% 1909 0.054949 18.198575 3.8464% 1908 0.052914 18.898565 0.0000% 1907 0.052914 18.898565 -2.5073% 1906 0.054275 18.424717 5.2689% 1905 0.051558 19.395500 2.6987% 1904 0.050203 19.918935 0.0000% 1903 0.050203 19.918935 1.3740% 1902 0.049523 20.192612 2.8128% 1901 0.048168 20.760586 1.4328% 1900 0.047488 21.058052 0.0000% 1899 0.047488 21.058052 16.6611% 1898 0.040706 24.566548 -10.4416% 1897 0.045452 22.001411 0.0000% 1896 0.045452 22.001411 -1.4749% 1895 0.046132 21.676901 1.4970% 1894 0.045452 22.001411 -1.4749% 1893 0.046132 21.676901 -5.5612% 1892 0.048849 20.471407 0.0000% 1891 0.048849 20.471407 -1.3619% 1890 0.049523 20.192612 0.0000% 1889 0.049523 20.192612 -2.6744% 1888 0.050884 19.652578 0.0000% 1887 0.050884 19.652578 1.3553% 1886 0.050203 19.918935 1.3740% 1885 0.049523 20.192612 -1.3553% 1884 0.050203 19.918935 -1.3372% 1883 0.050884 19.652578 -5.0576% 1882 0.053594 18.658633 -3.6586% 1881 0.055630 17.975983 2.4963% 1880 0.054275 18.424717 0.0000% 1879 0.054275 18.424717 5.2689% 1878 0.051558 19.395500 -3.7992% 1877 0.053594 18.658633 -5.9492% 1876 0.056985 17.548587 -1.1800% 1875 0.057665 17.341521

THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PRICE INDEX FROM 1875 TO 2010

How to use the chart, third set of examples:

This index will allow you to estimate the cost of any item in the dollars of any year included in the index.

Example: You know the cost of an item in 1900 was $1, and you want to know the cost it would have had in 1989 dollar figures [i.e. adjusting for inflation].

First go to the base year of 1900, in which 1.000000 is an estimated base for the year 1900.

Then look for the 1989 figure in the 1900 table:

1989 18.000607 0.055554

This indicates that the item costing $1 in 1900 would cost approximately $18 in 1989.

The second column is the inverse function, meaning an item costing $1 in 1989 would have cost about $.05 or $.06