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How rich is the Count of Monte Cristo?

GreeperGreeper Registered User regular
I'm reading the amazing Count of Monte Cristo, and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the numbers used for the money. I know that it was a different time, and that money was used differently then, but just to help me understand, from a modern perspective just how much money is the treasure of Monte Cristo? Are we talking Tony Stark, Warren Buffett or like... all of Indonesia?

Posts

  • AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    edited September 2013
    Well, idk about Indonesia, but it's definitely Bill Gates levels of wealth. Probably more.

    Australopitenico on
  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited September 2013
    The Count explicitly mentions his worth as 80 million francs late in the book (I don't remember the exact split between cash, gold, jewels, and property). The French franc at that time was composed of about 1/100 oz of gold, so we can figure this out fairly easily.

    80,000,000 francs x 0.01 oz of gold = 800,000 oz of gold

    Current market value of gold in USD = ~$1,380/oz

    800,000 oz of gold x $1,380/oz = $1,104,000,000 current USD

    Of course, there are lots of ways to figure this, such as converting the value of gold in the mid-1800s, then adjusting for inflation. These different methods could produce some variance up or down.

    It's safe to say, however, that Dantes was more or less a billionaire.

    naporeon on
  • Great ScottGreat Scott King of Wishful Thinking Paragon City, RIRegistered User regular
    Whoa. Thanks for the post, naporeron. Were there even that many francs in circulation back then?

    I'm unique. Just like everyone else.
  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited September 2013
    Whoa. Thanks for the post, naporeron. Were there even that many francs in circulation back then?

    In actual currency? I would say almost certainly not, but it's hard to say for sure. What I would say beyond a doubt is that no single individual possessed that great a fortune purely in cash.

    If I remember correctly, a portion of Dante's wealth is gold ingots, and a larger portion is diamonds and other gems/precious stones. On top of that, he buys a lot of property on his return. Very little of his wealth was actually tied up in currency, I would imagine, but again, I'm not sure how explicit the book is on this point.

    While I'm here, I'd like to say that The Count of Monte Cristo is a pretty terrible book. Or rather, it's a relic of its time. The plot at its core is a delight (who doesn't love a good revenge story?), but it was written while the modern novel was still coalescing as an art form; if you've read an unabridged version, you've no doubt noticed a great deal of largely unnecessary and unbelievably tedious detail. I would recommend an abridged version.

    Even better, I would recommend you skip it entirely, and read a personal favorite of mine, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. It tells a virtually identical story, but transports it into the future, and cuts out all the fat. I am not normally a sci-fi fan, but it's a book I make a point of recommending constantly. In fact, here is a write-up I made for a thread in SE++ about 5 years ago:
    naporeon wrote:
    Where do I start with this book? How about by telling you that it's like The Count of Monte Cristo, only with rockets and teleporting maniacs and badass radioactive spies? Maybe I could let you know that most of the Cyberpunk genre can trace its roots back to this novel, written in 1956. If that's not enough, Alfred Bester was an early writer on Superman and The Green Lantern (he wrote the most famous Green Lantern Oath), and he won the very first Hugo award for a novel. This man had fucking chops.

    Seriously, read it.

    naporeon on
  • GreeperGreeper Registered User regular
    I thank you for your awesome answer naporeon. It's truly worth every awesome.

    As far as skipping the Count of Monte Cristo, I'm afraid I have to disagree. It's an excellent book, and the detail only seems to enhance it, rather than fall to a kind of Dickensian tedium which seems only to exist to pad the word count. I'm afraid I cannot put it down!

  • Great ScottGreat Scott King of Wishful Thinking Paragon City, RIRegistered User regular
    edited September 2013
    Having read both books, I can see both perspectives. The Count can be dry in places. A lot of places. But it's definitely worth reading (assuming you have the time for it).

    The Stars My Destination, on the other hand, is both easily readable and a true classic. It predates many of the SciFi tropes that people don't like. A must-read.

    Great Scott on
    I'm unique. Just like everyone else.
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    I imagine that The Count is repetitious in non-abridged form because it was originally published in 18 separate parts in a newspaper over the course of six months. Given that format it makes sense to refresh people on who is who and on what is going on. So, an abridged version makes sense. Personally I found reading it enjoyable, though the work definitely felt dated.

  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Greeper wrote: »
    As far as skipping the Count of Monte Cristo, I'm afraid I have to disagree. It's an excellent book, and the detail only seems to enhance it, rather than fall to a kind of Dickensian tedium which seems only to exist to pad the word count. I'm afraid I cannot put it down!

    DISAGREE

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    naporeon wrote: »
    Even better, I would recommend you skip it entirely, and read a personal favorite of mine, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. It tells a virtually identical story, but transports it into the future, and cuts out all the fat. I am not normally a sci-fi fan, but it's a book I make a point of recommending constantly. In fact, here is a write-up I made for a thread in SE++ about 5 years ago:
    naporeon wrote:
    Where do I start with this book? How about by telling you that it's like The Count of Monte Cristo, only with rockets and teleporting maniacs and badass radioactive spies? Maybe I could let you know that most of the Cyberpunk genre can trace its roots back to this novel, written in 1956. If that's not enough, Alfred Bester was an early writer on Superman and The Green Lantern (he wrote the most famous Green Lantern Oath), and he won the very first Hugo award for a novel. This man had fucking chops.

    Seriously, read it.

    The Stars My Destination was published in 1950s but when I first read it last year it felt ground-breaking, wholly original, and full of those moments where you have to take a break and set the book down to just mutter "holy shit!" to yourself a few times.

  • kaliyamakaliyama Left to find less-moderated fora Registered User regular
    Umberto Eco's short literary essays in Six Walks in the Fictional Woods have an absolutely fascinating discussion of time and how it is presented in novels which explains why all that "fat" in monte cristo makes it very engaging as a novel. So not only should you read Monte Cristo, you should read Eco's explanation.

    fwKS7.png?1
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    i accidentally got the unabridged copy for 11th grade english

    i did not realize my mistake until about halfway through

    my GOD it was tedious

  • LovelyLovely Registered User regular
    Hm. I remember having troubles reading unabridged Les Miserables (which I eventually gave up on), but I didn't have any particular problems with unabridged Monte Cristo. I enjoyed it all the way through, though it did take a long while.

    Oh, also, I think the first time I read it, it was hardbound version that I borrowed from the library and damn it was heavy to lug around. I made the mistake of dragging it to jury duty if I recall correctly. Got tired of lugging it around during that.

    sig.gif
  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    i've seen the simpsons version that's all i need to know

  • ShogunShogun Hair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get along Registered User regular
    naporeon wrote: »
    Greeper wrote: »
    As far as skipping the Count of Monte Cristo, I'm afraid I have to disagree. It's an excellent book, and the detail only seems to enhance it, rather than fall to a kind of Dickensian tedium which seems only to exist to pad the word count. I'm afraid I cannot put it down!

    DISAGREE

    Seriously I wonder if we're reading the same book. I've read the abridged and I own the unabridged. No one should ever be subjected to that. I do not see how you can call Dickens a tedium yet this is not.

  • NeadenNeaden Registered User regular
    Back on to the Counts wealth an important thing to remember is that the relative value of things was a lot different back then. In general labor was much cheaper and material goods such as clothes were much more expensive.

  • ArangArang HUEY LEWISRegistered User regular
    It's incredibly hard to dig up actual numbers for what things cost in 1821, so take all this with a pinch of salt. I'd like to mention that calculating this by the gold content of francs might be off since a) the measuring was probably quite imprecise and b) the treasure, IIRC, was much older and consequently didn't have franc coins in it in the first place, meaning that the Count would need to actually withdraw his entire fortune in franc coins for the math to be right. It's probably in the ballpark anyway, though.

    For a more period-relevant number, the Treaty of Tilsit forced Prussia to pay the French 120 million francs (this was in 1809). The Prussian state debt went to somewhere over 200 million, which was high enough that traders considered Prussian bonds unsafe investments (although I'm sure risk assessment was different in the early 19th century). Anyway, not Indonesia-levels of wealth.

    Gold, I'm quite sure, would be much more valuable in 1821 than today. The majority of the world's gold has been excavated after 1950, I can't find anything suggesting how much of it would've been up in the early 1800s (other than that a lot of gold is South African, and things didn't pick up there until the 1800s), but as mentioned, the values of items were proportionally very different in those preindustrial times.

    Finally, my own extremely tenuous piece of math:

    The Wikipedia article for the Treaty of Tilsit suggests 154 million francs were worth 41 million thaler, and that 30 million thaler were worth 5 million pounds, which means 41 million thaler were 6.8 million pounds. Using this Official™ currency calculator, that's about 230 million pounds in 2005 money, or, using this surprisingly legitimate-looking calculator that's 280 million pounds in 2013 money, which is 437 million US dollars, give or take a few million to rounding. The second calculator gives the numbers as 493 million pounds (771 million USD) adjusting for the retail price index or 5 billion, 230 million (8.2 billion USD) adjusting for average earnings.

    As you can see, the numbers suggest the Count was, at most, about a fifth as rich as Bill Gates and still capable of paying off a good chunk of the Prussians' harsh war indemnities.

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  • Adam CasalinoAdam Casalino New York (in my heart)Registered User regular
    naporeon wrote: »
    80,000,000 francs x 0.01 oz of gold = 800,000 oz of gold

    Current market value of gold in USD = ~$1,380/oz

    800,000 oz of gold x $1,380/oz = $1,104,000,000 current USD

    Of course, there are lots of ways to figure this, such as converting the value of gold in the mid-1800s, then adjusting for inflation. These different methods could produce some variance up or down.

    It's safe to say, however, that Dantes was more or less a billionaire.

    =O that's a lot of gold. no wonder he was the man.

  • MentalExerciseMentalExercise Indefenestrable Registered User regular
    As an assigned piece of school reading the unabridged Count would be nigh intolerable.

    However as something that can be taken at leisure, a chapter or two at a time, it can wonderfully create a sense of place which, if you're interested in the place in question, can make for an incredible story.

    Between Hugo and Dumas I have a very vivid mental picture of pre-republic France that has helped me enjoy many other works of literature more thoroughly.

    "More fish for Kunta!"

    --LeVar Burton
  • BlindZenDriverBlindZenDriver Registered User regular
    I think that when considering the Counts fortune it is important to not only think of an amount but also to consider the wealth which was in the world as a whole. It's sort of like the saying that in a world of Blinds the one eyed man is King.

    I'm not sure that there is something like a Gini index from the time, but I think most people was very poor and that having any type of personal fortune meant you were very rich so that having huge fortune was pretty extreme.

    Bones heal, glory is forever.
  • KelorKelor Registered User regular
    The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite book I've ever read so I'm slightly biased here, but I would absolutely recommend The Stars My Destination too.

    There's also a Japanese adaptation called Gankutsuou which is on Hulu I believe (Australian here) that is worth giving a try. It's set in the future with a very unique art style, and the locations are pushed farther out to retain the same sense of the exotic. For example the Count and Albert meet in the city of Rome, on the moon. Edmond's travels to the East/Orient took place in the outreaches of space, Danglars is an international stockbroker rather than a banker, Fernand worked his way up through Earth's space fleet and so on.

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