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Re: The size of the Begum Fortune

From: Alex Kirstukas <infernalnonsense~at~yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2012 15:48:50 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il> 



Right you are, David. The French title is "Le 500 millions de la Begum," i.e. the 527,000,000F mentioned below.

Note, though, that the most respectable translation (Stanford Luce, Wesleyan UP) is called simply "The Begum's Millions," presumably because the implied reference to francs is lost in translation. In other words, a literal translation of the title would make modern English speakers ask "500 million WHAT?"

Alex




________________________________
 From: David McCallister <drmmystery1881~at~gmail.com>
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il> 
Sent: Sunday, April 1, 2012 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: The size of the Begum Fortune
 
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 - 01:48:57 IDT











      

    

    

      

        
      

    

    

    

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