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The size of the Begum Fortune

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:28:49 +0000
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Using a copy of the text hosted by Gutenberg (and Google Chrome's
onboard translation) it states that "This estate was valued in 1870 at
the round number of twenty-one million pounds, or five hundred
twenty-five million francs. In execution of a judgment of the court of
Agra, confirmed by the court of Delhi, approved by the Privy Council,
the movable and immovable property were sold, the realized values, and
the total was placed on deposit at the Bank England. It is now five
hundred and twenty-seven million francs" and if we assume that the
dating is comtempoary then that was place it in 1879.
  
Now, thanks to the power of the internet we have a multitude of
inflation calculators so we can ask "What is Fr 527,000,000 in today's
money (preferably Euros)?". First thing is to find out what the money
would be worth now thanks to inflation and thanks to someone from the
University of Exeter in England, we can. He points us to a website that
states (very helpfully) that in 1860 a franc was worth about €1.99 and
that a 1900 franc was worth about €2.37 (at 2006 values). Now since
then the € has depreciated in value by 15%, so therefore an 1860 franc
is now worth €1.70 and a 1900 franc is now worth €2.01 which suggests
an average change of €0.00775 per year (which would place our 1879
franc at about €1.85) therefore the Begum Fortune in current money is
about €974,950,000.
  
Next, how does that compare to global lottery records? Well, that
brings up the problem of currency conversions. Therefore as the
question refers to the recent Lottery jackpot in the US, let's convert
into United States dollars. At the close of trade on Friday, €1 = $1.33
(so our Begum Fortune stands at $1,296,683,500) which absolutely blows
away every US lottery prize ever awarded. But what about elsewhere in
the world? The Italian record is a mere $205 million, The EuroMillions
record is $260 million and the UK lottery's record is a mere $67
million. In fact the only lottery to come anywhere near the Begum
Fortune is the El Gordo lottery in Spain which in 2010 reached a
jackpot of $900 million. So has there ever been a Begum Fortune sized
lottery jackpot? No, but experts believe that if the Mega Millions
jackpot had indeed rolled over, it would have offered a very good
challenge (with some estimates of a $1.3 billion jackpot)
Received on Mon 02 Apr 2012 - 00:28:59 IDT

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