#it wouldn't make sense for the family to be fabulously wealthy

[der-karibisch-heyder]

Caribbean Currency 2

Continuing from the last post I made.

(Pictured: Florentine Guilder from 1341)

So I did a bit more reading around, mostly in the interest of grasping living wages and cost of living in the 17th and 18th centuries. In doing so I came across more in depth information about Dutch currency beyond the Lion Dollar, namely the Guilder.

Guilder, which is the English term for Gulden, which is German and Dutch for just “golden”, an informal term for “gold penny”. It is largely considered interchangeable with the Florin, as the currency was widely used all across the reach of the Holy Roman Empire. Anyway.

A Guilder was essentially worth half a Lion Dollar. Recall earlier, a Lion Dollar is worth between 4 and 5 Shillings in English currency. It takes 20 shillings to make a pound, thus 4 to 5 Lion Dollars to make a pound. Hence, it takes about 10 guilders to make a pound, so a Guilder is roughly equal to 1/10th the value of the pound or English Guinea. This is all noteworthy because the Guilder was the long accepted go-to currency for foreign reserves, likely due to its equal value and standing with the Florin and its widespread use across central Europe.

In reading on all this, I too found the values of ships were often rated in tonnage. Specifically about 20 pounds to the ton. Using some ships in Devil’s Eye for a quick reference...

La Demonia Roja, a massive Manilla Galleon, weighs in at 1000 tons of storage, giving it a massive value of 20,000 pounds.

The Barracuda, a simple schooner, weighs in at a mere 100 tons, giving it the value of 2000 pounds.

The Barracuda’s long standing rival and competitor from their piracy days, the Dutch vessel Diantha, being a converted Fluyt (a ship with a unique design meant to maximize tonnage without taking up too much area), weighs in with 400 tons for a value of 8000 pounds.

The HMS Cavalier, a 6th Rate warship oared frigate captained by an old former friend of Ravyn Hurley’s father, Post-Captain Jack Davenport, weighs in at 300 tons for a value of 6000 pounds.

For comparison’s sake, the annual wage of the First Lord of the Treasury of England was 4000 pounds. It’s a little sad that Ravyn’s pride of a ship is worth less than that, but such is life. Middle class wages were expected to be anywhere between 40 and 75 pounds a year, which is about what would be expected for a merchant trader who owned a ship. Given the costs of a ship and hiring a crew to captain and sail the ship, the loans must be outrageous. Despite that, a ship was a long term investment that often paid for itself several dozen times over several decades of use, which is why piracy for stealing such vessels was a lucrative business to begin with.

Other notable wages and fees of the 17th and 18th centuries include:

Coach rides were 5 pence per mile if you rode inside the coach, and 2 pence per mile if you rode on the outside.

River ferrying was about 3 pence per mile.

A cheap shared bed at an inn would cost you 2 pence a night - but an unfurnished room for rent would only cost 1 shilling a week, so it was actually cheaper to pay by week if you were staying over long term. (Things like this are again, why Ravyn needs Robert around to manage the crew’s finances!)

Servants only made between 2 and 5 pounds a year in earnings, but their estate would pay for their clothing, food, and board, which were the most common and costly expenses of living at the time. A more experienced housemaid could make up to 8 pounds a year, and an exceptional housekeeper could make up to 15 pounds a year.

Lastly, it was generally assumed anyone making 500 pounds or more a year were considered wealthy to some degree or another. I don’t know how far up one must go the wealth ladder to be considered nobility or aristocracy, though.

As for the money the Heyder family pulls in, I’m still working that out. I’m imagining Robert having a fairly large amount of disposable income, but not enough to where he can just liberally throw money at any and every problem he comes across. Otherwise it would start begging some questions. I’ll get back to that later.

[mermaidsirennikita]

lmao i always said i wanted to marry a rich man and ended up with another broke college student. string me up just like edwina. everyone says they want to marry someone rich. that doesn’t make edwina a bad person. stop holding her to impossible standards. are y’all forgetting about s1 anthony listing all the things wrong with various suitors of daphne’s? or when kate literally compiled a list of “suitable” (read: titled) men that were in her mind good enough for edwina? that was how it was back then, not to mention edwina likely knew that her family was running out of money (just not about the scheme with the sheffields) and knew that it would bring prosperity to her FAMILY. i’m tired of people acting like edwina was so selfish when she was doing HER duty - the one kate gave to her - too.

Listen... My mom didn't marry a rich man, but she always told me to do it if I could pull it off in a way that made me happy. I've always wanted to marry a rich guy, if I at all could. And when I say rich--I don't think we're all lining up to marry Elon Musk here. But as someone who has had to work like... 3+ jobs at once to make end's meet... Yeah. I would like to marry someone who makes it so that I can have alllll my bills paid, while being able to see a concert a few times a year, or go on a nice vacation once a year. You don't have to be fabulously wealthy to do that, but you do need to be somewhat comfortable.

But burn the witch if she doesn't wanna be financially stressed, I guess!

The thing is? And this is something the show really doesn't super address--if the family was *that* financially stressed, Kate very much could've made a go of it on the marriage market in India. There was an eight year age gap between her and Edwina, and at one point she mentions spending "the last eight years" teaching Edwina how to be a perfect lady. That means Kate started at 18.

Yes, the Sheffields could've given them *more* money, but if Kate had found a reasonably well off husband, whether that be in India or England, she could have potentially taken care of Mary and Edwina. Maybe not in the same level of wealth that she could have through the Sheffield inheritance, but to a degree. I'm not going to delve into whether Kate's hypothetical other husband would've felt obligated to help the way Anthony would have because he loved her... But honestly, this is something the show kind of fucked up by having the girls be in India for years.

At 18, Kate was ripe for marriage, and we know literally nothing about Bridgerton!verse India besides it existing and Kate loving it. Kate was the daughter of a well-respected man, a royal secretary, so it's like... Hard for me to believe that no man in India of decent standing would've wanted her. She wouldn't have even had to have spent the money on traveling to England for a season. She could've stayed there and tried to find someone--and if she wasn't able to find a kind, reasonably comfortable man who was okay with even having Mary and Edwina live in the guest bedroom lol... Fine. Sure.

But I tend to think more, based on her character, that she either thought so little of herself that she didn't think this possible... Which doesn't seem likely, or she didn't want to and reinforced this by saying to herself "It's Edwina's role to be this amazing incredible lady who marries a rich guy and gets a princess-like life". I think there was a combination of Kate's own desires, her dreams for Edwina, the lure of the Sheffield inheritance... and like, probably some plot hole shit the writers didn't think of.

Kate did give Edwina that responsibility, when she had plenty of time to try for it herself. I'm not even saying commit to setting out to find a husband for sure--like, giving it a year before throwing your hands up and saying "WELP! Nobody who can support us wants me" would make sense too. For someone so practical (in theory) this didn't super make sense to me.