Tartan price comparison - Wilsons' and today

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Looking at some of Wilsons' cloth pricing is fascinating and helps explain why the tartan industry of today is but a shadow of its former self but why individuals have far more tartan/kilts/stuff etc., than they would have had if they'd lived in 1820.

In 1819 the manufacturing cost of Wilsons' Superfine tartan was 8d per Scotch Ell (37 inches, so essential the same as a yard) which equates to approximately £1.50 today and explains why hard wearing tartan was in demand across the world. Today the nearest equivalent cloth would cost around £42 p/mtr wholesale. Hardly surprising that our weaving industry has collapsed because of cheaper cloth available from overseas.

8d p/ell = 1.5 yds per Shilling or 13.3 yds of tartan for a £1 which, even allowing for a retailer's mark-up, looks like an incredible price when a £1's worth of cloth would have been more than enough for a whole outfit. Bargin! Until that is, one factors in the equivalent average earnings: a footman in 1820 earned in the region of £8 p/a so a yard of cloth represented 12/5% of annual income. Assume an equivalent type job today earns £15k then the yardage costs 0.28%. An Army Major on the other hand earned £1.2s p/d (£256 p/a) so £1 represented 0.004% of annual income compared with today's officer for whom modern cloth equates to 0.001 of income. In 1820 in income of £500 (£21k today) would mean one was considered rich. Hard to buy a house and bring up a family on that today!