Time for my regularly scheduled metrology bitching. One of the literary types on Substack noted that Sam Johnson was paid the miserly sum of 1575 pounds for his dictionary. Modern freelancers should be happy to get more than that.
Miserly? Hardly. Depending on the measurement standard, Johnson got somewhere between $300k and $1 million in today’s terms, for an intended three years of work. He ended up taking ten years, but the contract was meant to pay for three. By those multipliers he got at least $100k per year.
I prefer to compare with average income for earlier years. Simple CPI multiplication only works after 1930, because urban people have lived the same way since then. Most folks have plumbing, electricity, transportation and appliances, so they don’t need domestic servants and extended families. Multiplying average income also reflects our natural sense of wealth. Like most other senses, we compare wealth by multiples. A neighbor who makes twice as much is one step above us. If we make 50k, a neighbor who makes 100k is one step above us. If we make a million, a neighbor with two million is one step up.
In Johnson’s time common laborers made 20 pounds per year and skilled workers made 50 pounds. Those would translate to about $40k and $80k now. Johnson’s 500 per year was 10 skilled workers or $800k.
That’s nowhere near bestsellers like JK Rowling, but it’s better than modern lexicographers and textbook authors. I know something about the latter!
Polistra's Mill 