Note 8 — THE SOCIAL (OR HISTORICAL) VALUE OF MONEY

A simple daily example of an amateur index number is the housewife’s idea of “cost of living.” She finds that, for the purchase of her home, a great deal of bread, a little butter, more cheese, so much for clothing, rent, etc., 40s. to-day go about as far as 20s. in 1913 before the war. In other words she is “taking 1913 as a base and establishing an index number of 200 for 1923.”