<story><title>Purchasing power of one US dollar in every year from 1635 to 2020</title><url>https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032048/value-us-dollar-since-1640/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lolinder</author><text>&amp;gt; When converted to the value of one US dollar in 2020, goods and services that cost one dollar in 1700 would cost just over 63 dollars in 2020, this means that one dollar in 1700 was worth approximately 63 times more than it is today.&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know what they mean by saying that the U.S. Dollar was worth X in 1700 (much less 1635) when it didn&amp;#x27;t even exist until 1792? Are they implicitly converting to the Spanish Dollar, or are they just saying that this is what the dollar &lt;i&gt;would &lt;/i&gt; be worth if it were around back then? If the latter, how would you go about calculating this?&lt;p&gt;They attribute the data before 1913 to Dr. Robert Sahr of Oregon State, but I can only find him going back to 1774 [0].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;liberalarts.oregonstate.edu&amp;#x2F;spp&amp;#x2F;polisci&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;inflation-conversion-factors-convert-dollars-1774-estimated-2024-dollars-recent-year&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;liberalarts.oregonstate.edu&amp;#x2F;spp&amp;#x2F;polisci&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;inf...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>derbOac</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a discussion of it here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.americanantiquarian.org&amp;#x2F;proceedings&amp;#x2F;44517778.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.americanantiquarian.org&amp;#x2F;proceedings&amp;#x2F;44517778.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not sure if it&amp;#x27;s the same method, but there they say these kinds of analyses are produced by using known exchange rates for different currencies, and then sort of back-estimating the value of the dollar based on those exchange rates.&lt;p&gt;So if you know the value of the USD in 1792, you can use different exchange rates with existing currencies to retroactively estimate the value of the USD if it had existed.&lt;p&gt;Ideally it seems you&amp;#x27;d somehow aggregate over different currency exchange rates; maybe they all produce a unique solution, or maybe that aggregate is done some other way.</text></comment>
<story><title>Purchasing power of one US dollar in every year from 1635 to 2020</title><url>https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032048/value-us-dollar-since-1640/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lolinder</author><text>&amp;gt; When converted to the value of one US dollar in 2020, goods and services that cost one dollar in 1700 would cost just over 63 dollars in 2020, this means that one dollar in 1700 was worth approximately 63 times more than it is today.&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know what they mean by saying that the U.S. Dollar was worth X in 1700 (much less 1635) when it didn&amp;#x27;t even exist until 1792? Are they implicitly converting to the Spanish Dollar, or are they just saying that this is what the dollar &lt;i&gt;would &lt;/i&gt; be worth if it were around back then? If the latter, how would you go about calculating this?&lt;p&gt;They attribute the data before 1913 to Dr. Robert Sahr of Oregon State, but I can only find him going back to 1774 [0].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;liberalarts.oregonstate.edu&amp;#x2F;spp&amp;#x2F;polisci&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;inflation-conversion-factors-convert-dollars-1774-estimated-2024-dollars-recent-year&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;liberalarts.oregonstate.edu&amp;#x2F;spp&amp;#x2F;polisci&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;inf...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Spooky23</author><text>The dollar was based on silver content (~25g iirc), and I think you can reasonably accurately compare values and inflation based on comparable coins.</text></comment>