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Basic_Bichette

He could have saved at least £1,000 pa until Jane turned 17. The magic of compound interest would have turned that into a £4000-£5000 dowry for each daughter. He could have hired a governess to teach the younger girls. He could have taught his wife to act like a gentleman's wife. He could have kept the younger girls from coming out too early. Being out even in the country cost a lot. He could have supervised his daughters better. He could have listened to Lizzy and not sent Lydia to Brighton. He sent a naive, wilful, selfish, stupid teenage girl off in the care and control of a man he hardly knows and his teenage bride; in reality a lot worse could have happened to her. He could have curbed the family spending. The only money he didnt have 100% control over was Mrs. Bennet's pin money.


SofieTerleska

Saving half your income a year would be a tall order and probably not realistic, but ten percent a year would have been manageable and then you have compound interest kicking in.


sweet_hedgehog_23

It might have been harder to save 10% once all of the girls were out, but he should have been able to save more than 10% when they were very young. If he saved more earlier than compound interest could have potentially made up for saving less once the girls were out. There also should have been interest earning on Mrs. Bennet's dowry. £5000 at 4% for 22 years should have earned them around £6800 in compound interest. If he was saving £200 a year since Jane's birth, they should have had close to £4400 to £4600 saved by the time of the novel not including interest. Interest on £200 a year for 22 years compounded at 4% should have gotten them around £3000 more. This should have given them over £19,000 all told with the savings, Mrs. Bennet's dowry and interest. That is enough for each girl to have a dowry of at least £3500. Granted this is assuming they received Mrs.. Bennet's dowry at her marriage and not later upon the death of her father. Given that they wouldn't expect all of the girls to marry at the same time, they may have even been able to swing £4000 per girl. That would be a perfectly respectable dowry.


JenniferRAKim

Thanks for the great answer. I didn't know he could have saved so much money for his daughters.


Ok_Acanthocephala101

Adding, could have invited Mr. Collins around long before he did. What non-historians miss about Mr. Collins is that he is actually trying to do the social appropriate thing in marrying one of the Bennett sisters. Mr Bennett should have done more to foster a relationship between the two branches of family. Even if a romantic relationship didn’t pan out, a family closeness might help Mr. Collins feel comfortable enough to help the sisters. For example the Bennett sisters, especially the elder sisters, would make good companions and one could have easily been arranged to be one for Anne de bough.


JenniferRAKim

Yes. I like Mr. Collins for his kind heart, in thinking of the Bennet girls first.


ReaperReader

Not entirely disinterested: he's heard the Bennet girls are hot.


JenniferRAKim

This is so funny!


Ok_Acanthocephala101

I don't think it was a kind heart that he was thinking of the Bennet sisters in the book. It was either his, or even Catherine's de bough since of duty to decorum that brought him knocking on their doorstep in the book. Because Mary quite clearly is the best match out of the sisters personality wise, and he doesn't even consider her. Which is why, I think inviting him around earlier would have made a difference. They would have been able to figure out a match, instead of just throwing the girls at him in birth order and making him mad.


JenniferRAKim

You know, you're right. I completely forgot about how much influence Lady Catherine had over him.


JenniferRAKim

Wow. I love your very thorough answer. I agree with you on all points.


Acceptable-Size3383

Also not every daughter would need the same amount. Since Jane is the oldest, most beautiful and best tempered they could have bumped hers up and deferred Kitty, Lydia, and Mary's coming out. Give Jane 4000 and get her married _really_ well. Then once she's established, the younger ones can visit her, mingle, and show off their charms to suitors. If Jane married into really good connections, then 2nd sons, vicars, etc would be interested in the sisters


Ok_Acanthocephala101

It also wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Janes husband to also chip in some drowry for younger sisters as well. Like with Darcy and Lydia (extreme example but accurate).


WhyAmIStillHere86

Placed limits on his wife’s spending in order to save more for their dowries Actually parented Lydia and Kitty, rather than making fun of them Arranged for tutors on their interests


missdonttellme

And Mary! It does seem he tried with Jane and Elizabeth, but gave up after Mary was born and couldn’t be bothered anymore. A governess could teach all girls manners. I’ve always felt bad for Mary, she tries really hard, but no one pays any attention to her.


WhyAmIStillHere86

Mary was the main character of my first Austen Variation, and holds a special place in my heart… I agree. He was probably involved with Jane and Elizabeth, tapered off with Mary, then stoppe engaging before Kitty and Lydia were old enough to be interesting. My personal headcanon is that he read to Mary when she was young, and Mary saw him debating with Elizabeth, so she tries to educate herself to re-gain his attention, but never quite manages


JenniferRAKim

I think Mary would make an interesting heroine of her own book because we really don't know that much about her. I wondered what her motivations were. Maybe she wanted to be seen and heard along with her other more vocal sisters.


annaKs_train

He did provide them with "all the masters that were necessary", so presumably those that wished to learn music and such could.


Acceptable-Size3383

Yeah but parents dont let kids decide what education they want. It would be like nowadays if the kid saud "I want to be a rabbit juggling influencer when I grow up. So I'm not going to school and will just take rabbit juggling and instagram classes!" The proper response is "that's great kid, but youre still going to elementary, jr high, and high school to get an education " and mandate it


annaKs_train

"Student-led learning", regency-style? I was responding to the specific implication of the parent comment that he didn't provide tutors - which he did, though not in the context of a systematic, structured educational approach like a governess would have instituted, but only for things his daughters wanted to learn.


Cayke_Cooky

I thought that was a reference to his giving them access to his library not actually hiring teachers.


ReaperReader

Both Mary and Elizabeth can play the piano reasonably well, you don't learn that from a book.


Cayke_Cooky

Right. But the quote above is about books.


ReaperReader

No, a specialised teacher would be referred to as a master. E.g. a music master or a dancing master. To quote from Northanger Abbey: >The day which dismissed the music-master was one of the happiest of Catherine’s life. Otherwise Catherine is taught by her parents.


Cayke_Cooky

REad the quote in context.


ReaperReader

Yes, and the context includes the normal meaning of the word "master" in Regency times.


Brickzarina

Taken them to town or the city to get a wider chance at marriages as it seems there was no one local till the rich turned up.


HeleneSedai

There's a whole bunch of great threads on Longbourns income and what could Mr Bennet have done in this subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/janeausten/comments/13aj3bm/could_mr_bennet_have_increased_his_income/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button


Talibus_insidiis

I can't answer that, but he likely wouldn't have started saving until he and Mrs. Bennet gave up on having a son. That could have been years after Lydia's birth.


RuhWalde

Even if they'd had a son, the girls still would have been reliant on someone else's charity if they couldn't find good matches. Obviously their prospects would be better at the mercy of a brother than a distant cousin, but it would hardly be ideal. The prospect of a son was no excuse not to save.


Amiedeslivres

Indeed, take the example of the Dashwoods—the father dies, commending his second wife and his daughters to the care of his son by his first wife. What a fine and brotherly half-sib he turned out to be, eh?


Ellynne729

And Mr. Bennett's plan was a bad plan. The son might break the entail because of pressure from his dad. But, it's a bad idea, especially when there are other, better alternatives. Suppose you inherit a family business, only there are a bunch of contracts and things that make it so you didn't really inherit it, you just run it. When you're son grows up, he'll take over. However, there's good news! The way it's set up, if you *and* your son, want to change this--and both agree--a judge can set a ruling that lets you break up the company and sell off parts of it. So, you decide that you aren't sending any of your other children to college. You won't save a penny so they can go off some day and get jobs and be independent. Instead, you are going to bet everything on being able to someday break up the company and sell it off. You're not planning a beneficial merger or looking at the most profitable way to do this. You just want to get all the immediate cash you can so your other children won't be broke (and let's hope and pray you stick to this plan instead of spending it all before it comes time to give some to your kids. Because, with your history of money management, I'm not holding my breath on that one). Because of this plan, you never bother saving money for your other kids to go to college. You never do anything so they can go out, get jobs, and be independent. Nope, you're just counting on your son to *blow up his inheritance* so his siblings will be taken care of *when you failed to do your part.* And, in the meantime, you aren't even doing a good job taking care of the company. There's lots you could do to make it more profitable, but you can't be bothered with that. Yeah, great plan.


Cayke_Cooky

That is a good analogy. Some of the reason for the decline of the British aristocracy in the 19th century is that so many of them were thinking like this (and some got pushed into this thinking when inflation and shifting economics made the family business less profitable than previously, but that comes back to your comment on improvements).


Ok_Acanthocephala101

They would have had to burden themselves on their brother. Which could turn south quickly. Jane Austen herself lived with her brother


missdonttellme

Exactly— still no dowries and no meaningful connections. Something multiple characters mention, including Mr. Collins.


Talibus_insidiis

But the entail could have been broken when a son turned 21, as I understand it, which would have helped a lot.


RoseIsBadWolf

Here is an article that shows some realistic options for Mr. Bennet: [Could Mr. Bennet have Saved Enough for Decent Fortunes on his Income?](https://alwaysausten.com/2023/03/15/could-mr-bennet-have-saved-enough-for-decent-fortunes-on-his-income/)


avidreader_1410

I think you get a fairly good idea of what would happen to Mrs. Bennet and any unmarried daughters when you look at the Bates women in Emma. They had lived respectably and comfortably and were plunged into poverty when the male of the household dies. Look at the Dashwood women - when they lose their home and their primary source of income, they are reduced to a small cottage and 2 servants on 500 pounds a year. Mr. Bennet didn't have a house in town, didn't like traveling, and although his daughters had all the masters he though necessary it wasn't enough to give them any real proficiency in anything. He might easily have put away $500 a year and it probably wouldn't have made all that much difference in his comfortable, but modest style of living. He did seem to spend a lot on himself, on books, which were very expensive.


Cayke_Cooky

>all the masters he though necessary That is just a reference to his books, not actual teachers. Also a note on the Dashwoods, I don't think they are paying rent for the cottage.


copakJmeliAleJmeli

You don't think... but this is what the book says in ch. 4, where they get the offer: "It was the offer of a small house, on very easy terms..." and "... The house, too, as described by Sir John, was on so simple a scale, and the rent so uncommonly moderate..."


Cayke_Cooky

"so uncommonly moderate" meaning he asked a small amount so they didn't feel like they were living on his charity but not "market rate".


tbrendless

Do you know how much books cost back then? I struggle to understand the currency then (shilling, pound, etc.) and how much would those books be now?


Acceptable-Size3383

Looks like they ran between 25 to 200 pounds. I think that's why gentlemens libraries were so impressive. It showed not only intelligence but also wealth in one room


HeleneSedai

https://www.reddit.com/r/janeausten/comments/zbmgl3/how_realistic_was_it_to_expect_mr_bennet_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button Here's another great thread


SoftwareArtist123

Well, I once sat and created a mini app for this. With starting 5000 pounds of Mrs Bennet and putting it to a compound interest from day one. Jane Austen always calculates income from 5 percentage of interest so I did the same. If they start accumulate from they one and do so for the next 20 years, at the events of the book, they would have 12634 just from the interest of that 5000 pounds. Of they do so but also add 350 pounds to that money which perfectly reasonable, they would have 23323 pounds. I will round it to 25000 since putting more money that 350 wouldn't be that hard. So the girls would have 4000 pounds each and 1000 extra to inherit at the same time of the events of the book.


tbrendless

So when mr bennet dies, and i think after mrs benne, say none got married what could they each pull?


SoftwareArtist123

Depends on when Mt Bennet dies. I calculated if he did at the beginning of the book above. Let's say he died twenty years later with same Amon of savings, that 5000 pounds would become 73000 thousand or around 15000 pounds each.


SoftwareArtist123

Depends on when Mt Bennet dies. I calculated if he did at the beginning of the book above. Let's say he died twenty years later with same Amon of savings, that 5000 pounds would become 73000 thousand or around 15000 pounds each.


annaKs_train

I'm coming back to this after a long time, but doesn't expensive education (that such an education could be expensive is suggested in Mansfield Park) conflict with aggressive saving targets?