In Chapter XXXVI Ahab memorably takes a page out of the corporate manager's Big Book of Manipulation to offer a gold "sixteen dollar piece" to the first crewman to spot Moby Dick. Using the tool that Lemuel cited to gauge the purchasing power of $16 in 2010 dollars (2011 figures are not yet available), we get the following values. In the novel, Ishmael tells us that the Pequod sailed "some years ago," so I present numbers for the ten years preceding M-D's 1851 publication date.
$16 in | 1841 is worth | $412 in 2010 dollars |
1842 | $442 | |
1843 | $487 | |
1844 | $481 | |
1845 | $476 | |
1846 | $471 | |
1847 | $437 | |
1848 | $456 | |
1849 | $471 | |
1850 | $461 |
So we're talking about an "incentive" worth something like $450 today (although the coin might be worth somewhat less with a big nail-hole through it).
Not what you'd call a killer bonus for three years' work, but certainly a respectable "attaboy"—particularly since it was coming out of Ahab's pocket, not some productivity-enhancement budget.
$450 would get a fair amount of extra gumption out of me!
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