How Well-Paid was the Average Eighteenth-Century Soldier?

Dear Reader,

For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day.- Charles Dibdin, 1774

One of the most persistently popular notions about common soldiers in the eighteenth century is that they were poor, ragged, and "the scum of the earth." From Daniel Chodoweicki's "A soldiers' wife" to descriptions of the Chelsea pensioners, it seems that these soldiers did indeed suffer economically. The words of one retrospective ballad, by The Dreadnoughts, repeatedly includes the phrase, "You'll have to go out in the streets and beg, poor Johnny what'll happen to you?" Is this view supportable? And to what extent is this view based on former and disabled soldiers who were out of work, rather than actively-serving men?

Once again, I find myself on the shoulders of giants as I write this post. The research Christopher Duffy, Sylvia Frey, Kirstin Olsen, Liza Picard, Glenn Steppler, and numerous other authors make the conclusions reached here possible. How well-paid was the average eighteenth-century soldier?

Like the members of the working-class that they hailed from, many soldiers were rather poor, but not totally destitute.  Their pay certainly ranked in the lower strata of eighteenth-century incomes but was above or roughly the same as other groups in a similar social class: such day laborers or husbandmen. Pay varied between states. For example: the Austrians paid their common soldiers 5 or 6 creutzer,  British paid their men six-pence a day, when adjusted for stoppages, while the Prussian army paid their men 8 groschen a day. Yearly pay ranged from 12-14 Pounds a year in the British army to 24 Thaler a year in the Prussian Army. Soldiers in the Continental Army were promised a bit more, around $29 per year, but in practice, this was the equivalent of a few Spanish milled dollars.[1] The average soldier earned around $1,500 per year, when adjusted to today's currency. 

William Hogarth, The March of the Guards to Finchley

Although this sum may seem rather tiny from our perspective today, and indeed it is, it is important to keep in mind that the average day laborer made roughly $800 year (12.5 Pounds), and the average husbandmen $1550-$1600 a year (15 pounds).[2] Indeed, when measuring these sums, it may be easier to understand eighteenth-century wages through the lens of purchasing power, or labor value. When measured in these ways, the £12 is more like a yearly wage of around £20,000  in 2018 currency. So, while not rich by any standard of measure, these soldiers were not exactly destitute either.

For a refresher on eighteenth-century British monetary units, see this footnote.[3] It may be more illuminating to see what a daily soldier's wage could purchase. 1 pence could purchase a measure of gin, enough coal to heat a room for a day, or a enough firewood to heat a home for a day. 1.5 pence could purchase a pound of soap. For half of day's wages (3 pence), you could purchase a dinner of bread, cheese and beer.  Items priced about sixpence in eighteenth-century London included: a pound of cheese, a pound of hair powder, a lower-class dinner out consisting of meat, bread, and alcohol. Amenities available for 8 pence included:, a middle-class dinner out and a pound of butter. If able to save for five days, a soldier could afford to buy a pig.[4]

(Photo Credit: Wilson Freeman/Drifting Focus Photography)
Reenactors giving an excellent portrayal of Brunswick Regiment Prinz Friedrich.

However, soldiers often had their salaries stopped, in order to pay for clothing and other items. In 1770, an anonymous soldier attached a statement to his memoir, saying that after all stoppages were accounted for, he had just over four pounds to live on every year.[5] Soldiers also confronted many other expenses. Ulrich Bräker, tricked into joining the Prussian army, first complained, not of harsh discipline, but of the cost of living as a soldier:

Thereupon I went into an eating-house and ordered dinner and a jug of beer. For this I had to pay two groschen. Now, from the six that I had, four remained; on these I had to live for four days and they would last for two at the most. This reckoning made me lament sorely to my comrades. One of them, Cran by name, said to me laughing: "That'll teach you. But never mind, you have plenty of things you can sell. For a start, there's your servant's livery. Then you have two sets of weapons now, you can convert all that into ready money. And moreover bachelors like you often get an additional allowance for maintenance, you have only to apply to the Colonel." "Oh, oh, never will I do that again, as long as I live!", said I. "Damn it!" answered Cran, "you will have to get used to his roaring sooner or later. And as for your board, just watch carefully what the others do. You'll see three, four or five of them clubbing together to buy corn or peas or potatoes, to cook for themselves. Each morning they have a dreier's worth of spirits and a piece of bread from the ration, at midday, send to the inn for another dreier's worth of soup, and another piece of the bread-ration goes with it. In the evening kovent or small beer, two pence worth, and bread once again". - "But, by heaven, that's a wretched way to live", I rejoined, and he: "Yes, but that's how one gets by, no doubt about it. A soldier has to learn to get by, because there are all manner of other articles that he needs: pipeclay, powder , shoe-polish, oil, emery, soap and God knows what besides." I: "And all this has to come out of six groschen?" He: "Yes, and much more besides, for example the bill for your washing, for cleaning your weapons and so forth, if you can't do these things for yourself". With that we returned to our lodging, and I ordered my affairs as best I could.[6]'

One gets the impression that Cran viewed Bräker as something of a whiner.

Although their pay was often partially deducted to cover expenses, soldiers also had their clothing and board provided, putting them at an advantage compared with day laborers. In most Germanic armies, soldiers were provided food at no-cost during wartime, another potential economic benefit. Obviously, by Twenty-First-Century living standards, these soldiers were incredibly poor. However, when measured against the standards of the class which they hailed from, there were certain advantages to being a soldier. Of the branches of service, cavalry was paid marginally more than infantry, and grenadiers had a slight pay-bonus when compared with musketeers. Non-commisioned officers earned more than private soldiers, and men enlisted in elite regiments, such as the monarch's guard, often received slightly more pay.

Some Prussian NCOs were even wealthy enough to purchase homes of their own, though this is very much the exception, rather than the rule.[7] The Prussian army allowed soldiers to find employment during off hours in peacetime, further increasing the income of soldiers. Observing off-duty Prussian soldiers in the 1770s, the Comte de Guibert recalled, "In Prussia, they proceed from the principle that no kind of occupation can demean a soldier, as long as it brings in money."[8]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some soldiers thought they were paid very little. In 1770, an anonymous British soldier recorded his thoughts on the subject:

"I beg to lay the following observations before the publick. Happy I shall be, if they are the means of exciting some good patriot to exert himself in getting the pay of the lower class of the British Army advanced. ... their pay does not exceed one shilling seven pence halfpenny a week, my readers will judge sort of livelihood a man can have in the army at this time."[9]

On the opposite note, both Austrian soldiers and military observers from other nations indicated that the Austrian army was paid quite well, and with regularity. Swedish military attache Fromhold Armfeldt reported that during the Seven Years' War the Austrian troops, "never go short of pay, meat, or bread. In the Austrian army, both officers and soldiers find everything they need."[10]

Soldiers in a tavern, 1770

As the above indicates, some actively serving soldiers had a relatively stable economic situation when compared with aged or disabled veterans. These men were often unable to work in the trades they had pursued before their military service. Shadrach Byfield, a soldier in the 41st Regiment of Foot, was terribly worried for his family's economic situation, as he was unable to return to his trade as a weaver after losing an arm in Canada. Fortunately for Byfield, he was able to design an artificial limb with the aid of a local blacksmith, enabling him to continue employment.[11] Many soldiers were not so ingenious, and less fortunate.

Most major European states followed the model of Louis XIV, who ordered the construction of the hôpital des invalides in 1670. The British Royal Hospital (Chelsea) opened its doors to pensioners in  1692, housing around 300 veterans at any one time. The Prussian state set up funds for wounded men as early as the War of Spanish Succession, and Frederick William I, provided for his Garde Regiment by allotting retired members a place in an invalid community near Potsdam. In 1748 the Prussians followed the French example of caring for the whole army by building the Invalidenhaus. This Prussian soldiers' home housed just over 600 veterans at any one time. Once again, we find that the Austrian state led the way in providing for soldiers. Government housing was provided for 4,000 soldiers, and Maria Theresa even went to great lengths reminding the army that these resources were available to disabled veterans.[12] Though these institutions were very progressive for their time, even in the Austrian case they only provided for a fraction number of total disabled soldiers

Daniel Chodoweicki: A Soldier's Wife 

 Because of this, many old soldiers stayed in the ranks longer than necessary. Christopher Duffy examines the issue: "Aged private soldiers hung on in their regiments for the same bad reason as some of the aged officers, namely that life was bleaker still in the outside world."[13] Old soldiers became beggars and would attempt to gather alms from wealthy generals or the monarch. So, while actively serving soldiers might be poor, disabled and aged veterans suffered when unable to find government assistance. 

Soldiers in the eighteenth-century often came from poor laboring classes and viewed military service as a way of securing their position in the world. Their humble economic origins prompted some officers to view their men as low-life scum, but the truth is infinitely more complicated. Though soldiers were by no means wealthy, they were marginally better off than day laborers, even if they suffered in comparison to tradesmen. Finally, for those few who could secure it, government assistance to old and disabled soldiers provided a rare measure of security to the infirm in the eighteenth-century.

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Thanks for Reading,



Alex Burns


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[1]Christopher Duffy, Instrument of War; Christopher Duffy, Army of Frederick the Great; Richard Holmes, Redcoat, John Milsop, Continental Infantrymen of the American Revolution.  
[2] For information regarding eighteenth-century wages in England, see: Kirstin Olsen, Daily Life in Eighteenth-Century England, 140-144. For the specific figures mentioned above, see Peter Mathias, "The Social Structure in the Eighteenth Century: A Calculation by Joseph Massie," (1957) Economic History, 42-43.
[3]4 farthings = 1 penny (d)
     2 halfpennies = 1 penny
   12 pence =  1 shilling (s)
   10 shillings and sixpence (six pennies) = half a guinea
   20 shillings = 1 pound (£)
   21 shillings = 1 guinea
[4] Liza Picard, Dr. Johnson's London, 294-297
[5] Anonymous, A Soldier's Journal, 175.
[6] Ulrich Bräker, Der Arme Mann von Toggenburg, 119.
[7]Ernst von Barsewisch, Meine Kriegs-Erliebnisse, 114-5.
[8]Jacques Antoine Guibert, Journal D'un Voyage En Allemagne, Fait En 1773 (Paris, 1803), 16
[9]Anonymous, A Soldier's Journal, 172-3.
[10] Quoted in Christopher Duffy, Instrument of War, 207.
[11] Shadrach Byfield, A Narrative of a Light Company Soldier's Service, 94-95.
[12] Duffy, Instrument of War, 343.
[13] Christopher Duffy, Army of Frederick the Great, 84.