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APPENDIX E.

PAY OF THE ENGLISH NAVY IN THE AGEOF PETER THE GREAT.

To permit of a complete comparison being made betweenthe pay of Peter the Great’s navy and that of the Englishat the same date, the following lists have been extractedfrom contemporary documents.

In the year 1700 it was proposed that the ‘pay’ ofofficers in command should be increased—doubled in fact.The advantages which the proposal appeared to confer onthe officers turned out to be considerably less than wasexpected, because though the ‘ pay ’ was raised, the allow-ances accompanying it were diminished. Much the samething happened as late as 1861, when the practice of givingto officers in command of ships c command money ’ wasintroduced. In individual cases the total emolument wasreduced. These, however, were soon set right. In manycases the gift of ‘ command money,’ as it was accompaniedby a reduction of ‘ pay,’ added very little to the previousremuneration.

In the ‘ Journal of the Royal United Service Institu-tion,’ June 25, 1880, Professor J. K. Laughton showed thatabout the year 1690 the pay of a captain of a First Ratewas:

Pay .... 273/. 1

Table money . . 250/. os.

Servants . . . 240/. os.

76 ll . 1 5 - 5 -'

It would require a whole treatise to establish aneffective comparison between the purchasing power of 763/.two hundred and nine years ago, and the purchasing powerof the same sum now; but it would be no exaggeration to