What is Mr. Darcy’s net worth in today’s money?

In the Georgian era, love took a backseat to a mutually beneficial union.

Patricia Mirasol
Aug 26, 2017 · 4 min read


Marriage is “a manoeuvring business


I’ve always loved how Jane Austen’s novels depicted society, relationships, and British culture so deliciously, and yet I’ve always wondered about the economic realities of her time. It’s something most people have to contend with when reading her masterpieces. Time and again, we are made to realize that in the Georgian era, love was a luxury and took a backseat to a marriage that offered both parties financial security and social status. This unwritten rule was well articulated by Pride and Prejudice’s Charlotte Lucas who uttered, “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”

This situation, as you can imagine, can lead to dashed hopes and personal anguish. In Sense and Sensibility, for instance, the Dashwood sisters each get a yearly income of £50 a year from their individual inheritances of £1000. Because the amount is a pittance, Willoughby forsakes Marianne Dashwood in favor of a more profitable match (no doubt conscious of the fact that he’s only worth £600–700 a year). In Pride and Prejudice, meanwhile, the incomes of Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy set Mrs. Bennet’s heart a-flutter. Imagine having two eligible bachelors with annual incomes of £4,000–5,000 and £10,000, respectively. How utterly swoon-worthy!!


Vulgar economy


By Julie Anne Workman (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

As it turns out, there is no single definitive way to determine how much these amounts are worth in today’s money. Spending power is influenced by war, inflation, cost of goods, housing, and the neighborhoods in which the dwellings were located. If Mr. Darcy’s income were to be converted to 2013 rates, then his £10,000 equals £796,000 per year — nothing to snuff at, sure, but not enough to maintain his beautiful estate, Pemberley. If you were to take into account changes in the GDP per capita, however, as well as the relatively cheap costs of the trappings of aristocracy like having servants in the 1800s, then his figure would work out to be around a cool £12 million (or US $15.5 million) per year, enough to run three Pemberleys.

Mr. Bingley’s income also afforded a cushioned lifestyle, albeit at a lesser scale. The real value of his £4,000-£5,000 is £150,000 to 200,000 a year these days. The prestige value? Around £4,438,500 (or US $5.7 million) per year.

To amplify how much of a deviation these gentlemen’s fortunes were from the rest of British society then, note that English laborers earned only around £15–20 a year back in the early 1800s. Note also that an English gentleman like Mr. Frederick Bennet only needed around £300 per year per individual to live comfortably.


By Jane Austen Created in vector format by Scewing (British National Archives) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Have you read any of Austen’s books? What are your thoughts about dowries and mutually convenient marriages?


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Patricia Mirasol

Culture, politics, and volunteerism. Contact me to contribute a guest post.

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Patricia Mirasol

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I talk about culture, politics, and volunteerism here. I talk about wellness, food, and the outdoors at ideacrib.net.

Patricia Mirasol

Culture, politics, and volunteerism. Contact me to contribute a guest post.

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