PriceAtlas.org

PriceAtlas.org is a project to build a comprehensive index of historical prices. I collect and catalog price mentions for various goods and services from sources like books, newspapers, catalogs, and other documents.

My goal is to make it possible to find out the price of bread in medieval Paris, a steamboat ticket in the 19th century, or how inflation has affected daily life across different eras.

Project goal

I believe that access to historical price data can offer new insights into economic processes. By analyzing this information, we can better understand inflation, purchasing power, and economic cycles.

PriceAtlas is an open tool for researchers, historians, economists, and anyone curious about what things used to cost. I hope to build a valuable, modern and convenient resource for economic history.

Next steps and ideas

Currently working on the following ideas:

• Prepare data schema for storing price datapoints.
• Create a script for analyzing various documents and launch it locally.

Updates and news

• 12 Aug 2025 First version of the website is deployed.
• 10 Aug 2025 Domain name is registered.

AI policy

I believe that AI should not be used to generate content, including requests for price or economic information. However, using AI may be crucial for data extraction and categorization, which I plan to implement along with human curation.

About creator

My name is Eugene A (𝕏: @eugerad). I'm interested in economic history, data, and technology. I'm creating PriceAtlas.org to make historical price data accessible to everyone who wants to better understand the past and present of economics. Also, I wish to learn more about data science and AI during this journey.