Comments on: Calculating Today’s Value of the Tea Destroyed on December 16, 1773

By: ThatHistorian (Darren R. Reid )

ThatHistorian (Darren R. Reid ) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:40:42 +0000

@HistoryChannel the true cost of the Boston Tea Party – http://raglinen.com/2010/05/01/value-of-the-tea-destroyed-on-december-16-1773/

By: ThatHistorian (Darren R. Reid )

ThatHistorian (Darren R. Reid ) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:39:40 +0000

Calculating the true cost of the Boston Tea Party – http://raglinen.com/2010/05/01/value-of-the-tea-destroyed-on-december-16-1773/

By: Alba Tross

Alba Tross — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:25:36 +0000

Thank you. I stopped watching America, the History of US, when they were talking about Paul Revere and repeated the old, old, teaching of: “The British are coming.”

I have also heard it is not receiving good reviews, but as I said, I stopped watching early on.

Something has happened to History Channel.

By: bostonhistory (Ben Edwards)

bostonhistory (Ben Edwards) — Mon, 03 May 2010 03:37:34 +0000

RT @raglinen: @HistoryChannel: Value of tea dumped into Boston harbor 1773 was $1M. My math = $1.4 to $3.1M? http://tinyurl.com/25jdnao #americastory

By: raglinen

raglinen — Sun, 02 May 2010 05:27:29 +0000

Thanks for sharing Bahne’s guest post on the same topic, J.L. So, we know the 1773 value was £9659. Now, how do we reach the modern value is the question?

Bahne’s calculation resulted in a modern value of $847,000, based on converting to US dollars first, in 1773, and then calculating inflation on the US dollar over 236 years.

For my calculation, I kept the same unit for 236 years, measuring inflation on the pound. Then, I converted fully inflated pound value to US dollars.

Applying my calculation order and using the same Measuringworth tool that Bahne did, I found that £9659 in 1773 = £972,000 today. Then, using today’s GBP to USD exchange rates, I calculate the value of the tea at $1,485,330.

By: J. L. Bell

J. L. Bell — Sun, 02 May 2010 00:23:54 +0000

Last December at Boston 1775, Charles Bahne shared an image from Parliament’s official report on the cost of the destroyed tea, and an estimate of the equivalent cost today. The America: The History of US series is getting terrible reviews from both Revolutionary War reenactors and early American historians.