Good Old Days - An Excellent Rifle for Rs. 300

[herb]

There was a time when India was the destination market for many well made guns. A .404 for around Rs. 350......

"Mahomedally Noorbhoy" are they still around?











My Mauser made around the same time i.e. early 1920's, no complaints about the quality of this gun for Rs. 300, it still functions flawlessly after nearly a 100 years.





Herb

[Sakobav]

Herb

You have great rifle and congrats for it. Regarding Rs 300 for a rifle it was quite a big amount of money back then in 20s. Not sure whether Rs 300 factored for inflation amounts to Rs 5 Lakhs the current price for such guns in India.

Nevertheless its great to read about dealerships and their selections.

Best

[HSharief]

Like my Dad says "Wo Zamana tha jab Khalil Khan faqthe udaya karte they". Those must've really been the days.

[OverUnderPump]

Aur ab ye zamana hai ke kimat sun ke hamare faqhtey udd jaate hai.

Roughly translated.

Wo Zamana tha jab Khalil Khan faqthe udaya karte they
Those were the days when Khalil Khan used to let doves fly.

Aur ye zamana hai jab kimat sun ke hamare faqhte udd jaate hai.
And in these times our hearts fly off like doves due to the inflationary price regime.

regards

OUP

[hamiclar01]

i quite agree with navdeep. you need to actually apply the right economic indices for inflation to actually derive the corrected price for the gun. pre independence, and even recently, 300 rupees was a considerable sum. as those familiar with premchand's stories would encounter, ten rupees a month was a "well off" salary in his era, where households would run on one rupee.

i am reminded of the guiness book entry on the highest earning hollywood film. not sure what it is at present, but once, it used to be "gone with the wind". even though indian jones and star wars earned more dollars, but corrected for inflation, they lagged behind

not to detract attention from the artifically over inflated arms and property markets in india at present.

[striker]

Oh god pls give me a time machine .


sankar

[TenX]

But having a time machine may also convert today's money to equivalent currency of the old times... Who knows, maybe it would....


Neverthless, what should be commended is the vision a century ago, to get such good stuff and hold it for future generations to post topics about it and get praise


Great stuff Herb

[mundaire]

If any of you want to know what would be today's equivalent of INR 350/- in 1923, there is a rough method you can use. Go to http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ which allows you to calculate any given amount of money adjusted for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 2007 - this is of course in US$.

As per this calculator something that cost US$ 1 in 1923 would cost you US$ 12.06 in 2007. So now we can use the multiple 12.06 to convert INR 350 into today's prices which gives us INR 4,221 or US$ 98.16 (assuming an exchange rate of INR 43 to the US$).

Needless to say this is hardly an accurate measure of inflation (in India), but since I could not locate a similar calculator based on the historical consumer price index in India - I used this as a rough indicator.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[TenX]

The calculator looks fine, but Economics surpasses Inflation to demand, supply and affordability...
I would like to check this with the approximate per capita at that time, and what percent of an expenditure this buy would be... That way the affordability based on direct National Macroeconomics can be verified (also as per Inflation)...

[penpusher]

The cost of one acre,that now costs 15,00,000/- was about 1200/- in 1950's. Would have been much cheaper in the 20's. Considering this,you can say that infact firearms are cheaper now.

[HSharief]

Can we it backwards, calculate "gunflation" with the 1923 price of Rs.300, vs current price of similar gun today, say Rs.5 lakhs.

[TenX]

Not everything has gone up in the same ratio as real estate. Some items like camera which were quoted at about 300 rupees in 1968 is similar to the 1000 rupees ones today. Technology, affordance, opening of the market, competitors, usage of the product, and a whole lot of other aspects matter...

[mundaire]

Can we it backwards, calculate "gunflation" with the 1923 price of Rs.300, vs current price of similar gun today, say Rs.5 lakhs.

Sure... just divide by 12.06 you'll get INR 41,459.37

TenX is right, it is not reasonable to compare the inflation in real estate prices to inflation in the prices of manufactured goods. Especially if we consider the fact that in "real" terms the prices of many manufactured goods are much lower today than they were even 20 years back, for e.g. electronic items, computers, etc.

Illustrating this fact further, a 300 sq. yard plot in many areas of south Delhi cost the same as the price of a new Premier Padminin (Fiat) car in the early 1970's, that plot would be now worth ~ US$ 1-2 million (depending on the area), which amount can buy you several cars far superior to the old Fiat...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Sakobav]

Abhijeet

Delhi trumps Manhattan but this is a good exercise for a commerce or economics major to calculate the price of the gun.

I tried oblique way of figuring out via British Lt pay in India in 20s, no luck there except that a married Lt was paid an extra stipend of Rs 150 per month.

Best

[The Doc]

There is no way to calculate the so called inflation in the firearm price because of one simple fact and that is the BAN ON THE IMPORT for the last 24 years or so. Had the import been allowed the price would have been reasonable and one could even calculate by the "Abhijeet formula" !!

Now there is NO WAY to calculate the price, one of the threads on this forum said that a Llama .32 was sold for Rs.5.5 L !!!!! And was bought by a well known IFG member !!!!! Now this is SUPER INFLATION !!

best,
RP.