What was the buying pwer of one dollar in 1848 in today's dollars?

Hi tr324:

Thanks for the interesting question. 

The best measure of the worth of money in the past compared to money
in the present is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). While precise
measures were not kept in the 1800s, there are accepted values that
are used.

Oregon State has a table of the CPI figures from 1800, based on the
comparison to 2005 dollars at:

Consumer Price Index (CPI) Conversion Factors 1800 to estimated 2015
to Convert to Dollars of estimated 2005
http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/cv2005.pdf

This table lists the conversion factor for 1848 to 2005 as 0.042. This
means that $1 in 1848 is equivalent to

$1.00/0.042 = $23.81

So, there's your answer ... $23.81

Search strategy (on Google): 
* inflation 1848

Hope this helps. 

websearcher

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 05 Mar 2005 11:52 PST

Actually, to be mathematically correct, we shouldn't give such a
precise answer ($23.81) to a question where the inputs (i.e., years)
are so "vague". As well, we're part way through 2005, so using an
exact figure for the year is questionable.

So, if you were going to quote a buying power value somewhere, I'd
suggest you use $24.

websearcher