What's it worth to you?!

Researching some Christmas traditions this day, I came across something unusual and fun.
George Washington was fond of exotic animals, and in 1787, he paid 18 shillings for a camel to live temporarily at Mount Vernon during the Christmas season! He felt it would be something with which to entertain his guests, and perhaps he had in mind the nativity scene and the Three Wise Men's arrival to see The King of Kings.

 As holidays in the 18th Century were rather low key, this must have caused quite a stir. Generally, people got together with family and friends to enjoy good food and drink, and sing carols, and chat. And, the camel would certainly have given them much to chat about.


By the way, during his time in office, George paid to see a lioness, a tiger, a cougar, sea leopard, an elephant and a "very smart" dog.

So, what's a shilling worth in the late 1700's? Well, I did some research on that as well. There are 20 shillings to the pound. So, George would have paid a little less than a pound to have the camel visit. Now, there were no US dollars until about 1790, but the pound was worth about $4.50. That was alot of money!

See this interesting fact below:

"A "forty shilling freeholder" in 1780 was a person with enough money that they had the right to vote. A survey done in NYC shortly after the Constitution was signed in 1787 found that about 20% of New York City residents had that much property. So having a net worth of 40 shillings then would put you in the upper 20% of net worths of people who lived in NYC" (taken from Amazon answers).

Money is all relative. One can always justify the purchase of something, if they want it badly enough. I guess George felt the camel was worth it!