Type VII -- How much is it?

[themrwho]

Kinda crazy but I am curious about WW2 era estimated cost (adjusted for 2012 prices) of a Type VII submarine.

I did search a bit and checked the major sites I know of I found price for Gato class but nothing about U-boats. Since these subs are built by private contractors price should be published somewhere (similar to Gato class).

Possibly a German speaker can find this in 2 minutes but I already forgot whatever little Deutsch I learned in school, ironically except the first full sentence our cocky teacher thought us - ich sprache Deutsch

BTW I know 100 or so words from das boot speech mod but does not help with price hunt.

So if any book worms who happen to have this data
or
German speakers who might wanna lend a hand, please do so....

Thanks.

[mcdamoose]

The only source I was able to find says 4.8 million RM. I'm hesitant to post the link tough because google gave me a malware warning, and I don't feel like getting banned in my first post.

[Lokisaga]

Ask a simple question, get a wall of text,
Great question. I found a paper by a USN Commander that discusses this: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87...campaigns.html. In the appendix he states that Type VII's were $2.25 million each at the time they were being built. By comparison, the same papers states a USN fleet submarine cost $3.3 million during the same time period. I've heard other figures around $2.25 million, so I'm inclined to believe this is correct.

How much this translates into in equivalent purchasing power today is difficult to determine because the global economy was so different then. For starters, the war caused massive disruptions to production, labor, and trade which skewed currency values, wages, and inflation in ways that make economists cry. Secondly, the very idea of a global economy was just coming into being at this time and it was not very popular. Most nations had responded to the numerous panics and financial collapses of the 20's and 30's by engaging in protectionism (trading internationally as little as possible) and artificially setting the values of their currencies in ways that are no longer done (usually declaring them to worth a certain amount of gold). Finally, there was just so much less capital, labor, and goods in the world at that time that any attempt to convert to today's dollars would be, in my opinion, meaningless. If you're really looking for a VERY rough approximation I would say $2.25 million in 1939-1945 would be equal in purchasing power to $28-36 million today. This is based on federal minimum wage increases and inflation rates.

[merc4ulfate]

As opposed to 2.6 billion for a current Virginia class.

[Lokisaga]

Well, as I said, it's a very inaccurate estimate because of how much the global economy has changed over time. I wouldn't use my estimate in any serious, academic discussions on the subject. I'm confident that they cost $2.25 million in 1939-1941, but that's all I would say with any degree of certainty. It's also important to remember that a lot of the electronics and machinery on the Type VII were very expensive at the time because they were so advanced, but now they would be museum pieces or scrap metal. When economists talk about the cost of something they really mean "the cost of replacing that object," or "the cost producing the next copy of that object." Since there's only 1 Type VII left in the world today, and no one builds any of the subsystems that went into it, the cost of replacement would be astronomical. At the time, the Kriegsmarine commissioned 700+ Type VII's, so I assume that economies of scale brought the per-unit replacement costs down significantly.

[merc4ulfate]

Sure as hell wish they would give me a Type VII. Three tubes in this Type II. She is a good boat. Much quieter than I would have first thought but running back to get torpedoes gets old.