The Victorian Era spanned most of the nineteenth century between 1837 and 1901. Most people only catch a glimpse of the time period through old photographs, but they don’t think much about the cost of items compared to today. This list covers a number of grocery items, how they may have been produced back then, and how much they cost nearly two hundred years ago.
Today Vs. Then
The price of Victorian grocery items can give us a good glimpse of what it was like in the Victorian Era. Exotic foods were much rarer and seen as a special treat rather than an everyday item. Items common on shelves today were all but missing with the limited availability 150 years ago. Still, with stark differences, there are also some eerie similarities that we can’t ignore either.
Bread
Bread was an essential food product in Victorian London, just like it is today. Many Londoners bought ready made food including bread because they didn’t have the facilities to cook at home. A loaf around one pound in weight was approximately a penny (nearly two dollars today). Bread may have been a simple staple in Victorian London, but today it has evolved into a much wider variety.
Meat
While bread was a staple, meat was normally reserved for those that lived more lavish lives. In 1888, the annual cost for good quality meat for a family was nearly $57. The working class didn’t eat meat nearly as often as the upper class. Today, meat is more accessible to people with the most incomes.
Groceries
A trip to the grocery shops to get the essentials would cost a family around $46 annually (nearly $9000 today). They would buy every day items like sugar, tea, and spices. These ingredients were important in flavoring simple dishes that would be quite bland otherwise. Today, supermarkets have much more variety and easily accessible items that would have been exotic by Victorian Era standards.
Vegetables
Vegetables were a more affordable item in the Victorian Era, although the season had a huge impact on what would be available, since most items were grown locally by a green grocer and not imported like today. The most common vegetables were root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Vegetables would cost a family around $12 (nearly $2000 today) annually.
Dairy Products
Some dairy products were more common because of local farms. Items like cheese were around 60 cents a pound (About a dollar today). Milk was a little harder to find than cheese because of the variance in quality. Pasteurization makes milk safer to drink today.
Fuel
Fuel was needed in the Victorian Era primarily for heat and cooking. Homes were not well insulated and would need a fire to keep them warm in winter. In 1888, a family spent around $15 per annum on coal ($2266 adjusted for inflation). Today, we’ve found more ways to produce sustainable energy.
Exotic Items
Foods that are imported today may not seem like that much of a luxury. Take an orange for example, around 150 years ago, a dozen would cost 63 cents (nearly ten dollars today). People would buy these items as rare treats. Today, imported good are very common, and not seen as all that exotic anymore.
Wages
In Britain, the average salary towards the end of the Victorian Era was 660 pounds a year. That’s about 100,000 pounds today ($125,000). Lower-class working people would only earn about 23 pounds a month ($4407 today). Today, there are still huge disparities in the wage gap.
Sources:
A measure of wheat for a penny: food price inflation in historical perspective − speech by Andrew Bailey
The Cost of Living in 1888
Food price inflation in the UK – statistics & facts
