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Re: The size of the Begum Fortune

From: David McCallister <drmmystery1881~at~gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2012 17:56:41 -0400
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Thanks. Somehow, I had the idea that "500 Millions" (of some
currency) was in the title or used somewhere in translations.
The proceeds were used to fund Stahlstat and Francville, were they not?

 I imagine that it might need about that much to really set up such
places these days, as well. What price a giant industrial complex
featuring an earth-circling cannon? Or a totally eco/hygenic- heath
care-cradle-to-grave utopian society?

David McCallister

On 4/1/12, Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 - 00:56:49 IDT

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