I just finished reading "Fortune's Children - The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt" "Colmmodore" Vanderbilt died around 1877 leaving $105 million to his heirs. Six years later his son William had increased it to $200 million. How can I find out how much $105 million in 1877 would be worth today and how much $200 million in 1903 would be worth today? I read the book because my brother and I were going to vist The Biltmore, owned by George Vanderbilt, in Asheville on our way to the Joe Nall event in SC. BTW, "Fortune's Children - The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt" is a fascinating look at the American "Gilded Age"
$105,000,000 in 1877 would be about 2,123,423,802.88. So 2.1 billion, quite the fortune. I'm not sure how accurate this calculator is, but this is what gave me that figure: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi EDIT: According to wikipedia, that figure is very low. It says in today's dollars, it'd be closer to $143 billion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_figures#Cornelius_Vanderbilt
Thanks for the link. That's quite a lot of money. According to the book William Vanderbilt was the richest man in the world in the early 1900s. some tidbits from the book - one of the Vanderbilt wives (don't remember which one) entertained 10,000 guest a year for many years. Mrs john Astor's ballroom in their house on Fifth Ave could accommodate 400 guests. Alva Vanderbilt wanted to out do Mrs Astor so she had her husband (William K?) to build a new house on Fifth ave with a ballroom that accommodates 1,000 guests. Some V. mansions had 90 - 100 servants and solid gold bathroom fixtures. One of their chefs was paid $25,000 a year had his own private servants and a sailboat at the Newport house. The Vanderbilt Biltmore mansion was on 144,000 acres of land. A mountain top was leveled to build it. another Vanderbilt mansion in Delaware had a garage containing fifteen Rolls Royce automobiles. The Vanderbilt fortune supported 787 family members and petered out in the 1970s.
Wow, it took him 25 years to almost double the money. I wonder what the average was for how many years it took to double your money back then.
The son William almost doubled the money (to $200 million) in six years. I believe the economy was relatively out of wack what with most of the country being poor at the time. I didn't read anything about how long it took to double money except for William V. The extravagance at the time is hard for me to understand.
President Lincoln was desperate to find a way to sink the Confederate armored ship "Merrimack" commodore Vanderbilt outfitted one of his ships then loaned it to the Union Army but it was never used against the Merrimack. Congress passed a bill that allowed the Army to take possession of the ship in return the Commodore was given a gold medal from the country. I wonder where that medal is today? As the war progressed the commodore sold many ships to the Army, unfortunately many of them weren't sea worthy.
In terms of gold, $105,000,000 in US gold coins from 1877 would have a gold value of approximately $7.6 billion at today's prices.
