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MEASURES AND MONEY.
Imperial measures have been retained in this story, since use of the metric system would have been out of character. Some approximate equivalents are: [image]
[image]
Money, unlike weights or measures, makes for more confusing conversions. It is difficult to accurately weigh and relate monetary values in the late 1820s with today"s. It helps to know, however, that there was one penny, twelve of which made a shilling. And twenty shillings made a pound. Now, consider that tobacco then cost three shillings to three and six a pound, eggs one and six to three shillings a dozen, bread two and a half to threepence a pound, and mutton six to seven pence a pound. A man"s good suit cost nine to ten pounds and a dozen bottles of claret thirty shillings.
A tradesman could earn about six shillings a day. A female servant, fed and clothed, cost ten to fifteen pounds a year. A farm laborer received twelve to twenty pounds a year, plus weekly rations of seven pounds of beef and a peck (fifteen pounds) of wheat.
And what price a human life? In Britain until 1827, a child could be transported for life, even hanged, for grand larceny-which meant stealing personal property worth more than a shilling.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
To all those authors, past and present and too numerous to be mentioned, thanks for the memories that informed this tale.
I owe a debt to Robert Sessions, Penguin Australia"s publishing director, who overcame his initial shock at being confronted with a ma.n.u.script knocked out on an old manual typewriter and talked me out of abandoning the project when my confidence flagged.
My editor, Nicola Young, was a rock of calm, cool and courteous professionalism. Certainly, she worked wonders on my German and French. I hope my grammar improves. Bonne chance! Bonne chance! My thanks, too, to Anne-Marie Reeves for her superb design and Mich.e.l.le Atkins. My thanks, too, to Anne-Marie Reeves for her superb design and Mich.e.l.le Atkins.
My old friend from the Women"s Weekly Women"s Weekly, the now so successful author Di Morrissey, urged me on. I also thank Peter Klimt for invaluable professional advice and Bert Vidler, too, for guidance.
My wife, journalist Julie Kusko, put up with my panics, toned down my tantrums, read and researched with me and, when I had two eye operations, became my seeing-eye dogsbody.