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Just for reference a talent was worth about 20 years wages. So while comparing currency values across vast stretches of time is inaccurate, it wouldn’t be total

by User23 3y ago

Just for reference a talent was worth about 20 years wages. So while comparing currency values across vast stretches of time is inaccurate, it wouldn’t be totally wrong to consider a talent about $1 million in today’s US dollars.

genman 3y ago
Talent is told to be about 33 kg (or something between 20-40 kg). So indeed a talent of gold will be over $1 million today.
- qwytw 3y ago
  It's silver though, so only about $26k (of course that's the least accurate way to compare modern and ancient prices). Gold wasn't that commonly used in the west back then.
  - genman 3y ago
    Thank you for pointing out that it was silver. But the gold and silver had more equal value at the time so direct comparison is not fair. In Roman times the silver was valued around 10 times less than gold but today it is around 100 times less valued. From this perspective the better approach might be indeed through labor as GP proposed but again how labor has been valued over time has not been uniform and might not compare to today.
qwytw 3y ago
On the other hand you could buy about 1200 gallons of olive oil which is less than $50,000 or 750 sheep which is might be about $300,000. Comparing modern/ancient prices get tricky.. To be fair though a worker earning 2 drachma per day would be closer to a modern person minimum wage worker (anyone back then who didn't own land, wasn't a merchant or at least a skilled craftsmen was dirt poor anyway). So if 1 drachma = $30 to $60 a talent would be closer to around $180-360k
- lelag 3y ago
  I think it's fair to argue than using modern value for goods that you can produce more efficiently thanks to the availability of cheap energy and phosphate is not really fair. 750 sheeps or 1200 gallons of olive oil were certainly worth a fortune at the time, and owning that much would probably have made you a very weathly person when owning 300K USD today does not.
  - User23 3y ago
    It’s a bit of a tangent, but this reminds me of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist[1] which is a good example of food commodity wealth in modern times. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_H...
  - qwytw 3y ago
    > and owning that much would probably have made you a very weathly person when owning 300K USD today does not. I guess it depends on whether we want to measure relative wealth to the rest of the society or what can you actually buy with that money which would probably change the valuation 10-100+ times. This applies to goods rather than labor to a much higher degree. Permanently owning the labour of 10 people working 16 hours per days is worth a lot more today than 10 slaves back then.
    - lelag 3y ago
      > This applies to goods rather than labor to a much higher degree. Permanently owning the labour of 10 people working 16 hours per days is worth a lot more today than 10 slaves back then. Yes, but that's also because of the productivity increase linked to the cheap energy and phosphate supply brought by fossil fuels. If cheap energy stop being available and human labour become again the main driver of economic output, you can bet that slavery will soon come back in fashion...
RecycledEle 3y ago
A talent was a weight. Assuming it was of silver, a talent of silver would be worth about $19,500 today.

by User23 3y ago

genman 3y ago

Talent is told to be about 33 kg (or something between 20-40 kg). So indeed a talent of gold will be over $1 million today.

qwytw 3y ago
It's silver though, so only about $26k (of course that's the least accurate way to compare modern and ancient prices). Gold wasn't that commonly used in the west back then.
- genman 3y ago
  Thank you for pointing out that it was silver. But the gold and silver had more equal value at the time so direct comparison is not fair. In Roman times the silver was valued around 10 times less than gold but today it is around 100 times less valued. From this perspective the better approach might be indeed through labor as GP proposed but again how labor has been valued over time has not been uniform and might not compare to today.

qwytw 3y ago

On the other hand you could buy about 1200 gallons of olive oil which is less than $50,000 or 750 sheep which is might be about $300,000. Comparing modern/ancient prices get tricky.. To be fair though a worker earning 2 drachma per day would be closer to a modern person minimum wage worker (anyone back then who didn't own land, wasn't a merchant or at least a skilled craftsmen was dirt poor anyway). So if 1 drachma = $30 to $60 a talent would be closer to around $180-360k

lelag 3y ago
I think it's fair to argue than using modern value for goods that you can produce more efficiently thanks to the availability of cheap energy and phosphate is not really fair. 750 sheeps or 1200 gallons of olive oil were certainly worth a fortune at the time, and owning that much would probably have made you a very weathly person when owning 300K USD today does not.
- User23 3y ago
  It’s a bit of a tangent, but this reminds me of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist[1] which is a good example of food commodity wealth in modern times. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_H...
- qwytw 3y ago
  > and owning that much would probably have made you a very weathly person when owning 300K USD today does not. I guess it depends on whether we want to measure relative wealth to the rest of the society or what can you actually buy with that money which would probably change the valuation 10-100+ times. This applies to goods rather than labor to a much higher degree. Permanently owning the labour of 10 people working 16 hours per days is worth a lot more today than 10 slaves back then.
  - lelag 3y ago
    > This applies to goods rather than labor to a much higher degree. Permanently owning the labour of 10 people working 16 hours per days is worth a lot more today than 10 slaves back then. Yes, but that's also because of the productivity increase linked to the cheap energy and phosphate supply brought by fossil fuels. If cheap energy stop being available and human labour become again the main driver of economic output, you can bet that slavery will soon come back in fashion...

RecycledEle 3y ago

A talent was a weight. Assuming it was of silver, a talent of silver would be worth about $19,500 today.