When reading a book like the Count of Monte Chriato or Scherlock Holmes, they mention that this and this person has an income of 4000 pounds and that person will have this and this income when she marries.
How does that work? Most of these people do not do any actual job.
In: 669
As many folks have written, much of 19th Century passive income came from the large estates owned by the gentry and aristocracy. However, as you’ll note in Austen and others, many of the people who are listed as receiving so many pounds a year, do not own estates. Indeed, some of them are themselves tenants of others. These characters draw their income not from estates, but from government bonds.
In order to finance the Napoleonic Wars and other policies, the British government sold consols, which are basically permanent bonds. Essentially, a person could buy a consol from the British government and would receive an annual income indefinitely. So if you bought 4% bonds, you would be assured of a return of 4% annually…forever. So if you bought 1,000 pounds worth of bonds, you might receive in perpetuity 40 pounds a year. There were of course also other instruments of investment that could also provide passive income in greater or lesser degrees.
A wealthy enough individual could thus assure themselves of a permanent passive source of income, without the need for a large estate (although for prestige reasons they might still buy or rent one).
Taking away all the complex history the answer is pretty simple, the characters in these novels are not that different from a modern wealthy person who sustains themselves via investment income.
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