Prices and Wages by Decade: Introduction

This guide points to primary sources showing consumer prices and wages for each decade back to the 1700s.  Whenever possible, we point to retail price averages as reported in government publications.  When those are not available, we point to prices appearing in sources published at the time, such as commercial trade catalogs, travel guides and newspapers.  Because costs can only be understood within their historical context, we also point to primary sources showing average wages, salaries and earnings.

This site is based on freely available historic resources, mostly from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRASER^®  digital library and the HathiTrust Digital Library.  To understand how much a historic price or wage might be worth in today's dollars, we recommend the website MeasuringWorth.com.

This website is managed by Marie Concannon of the University of Missouri Library's Government Information Department.  

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to MU Library employees Lindsay Yungbluth, Catherine Hutinett, David Steinmeyer, Amanda Krewson, Kamilah Jones, Scott Peterson, Carrie Carter, and Guinevere Lawson, as well as to Pamela Campbell of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' FRASER^®  digital library, all of whom provided assistance in the enhancement of this resource.