Charles Bingley is said to have inherited a fortune of £100,000 in Pride and Prejudice.
Bingley’s money comes from trade rather than from an old landed estate. That detail matters because Austen places him between the commercial world and the traditional landed gentry: he is wealthy enough to rent Netherfield Park and attract intense matrimonial interest, but he does not yet possess the inherited social standing represented by Darcy’s Pemberley.
The novel also gives Bingley an income of about £4,000 a year, while Darcy is reputed to be twice as wealthy. Those figures are annual incomes, not the total capital represented by Bingley’s £100,000 fortune. A common mix-up is confusing Bingley’s inheritance with Caroline Bingley’s £20,000 inheritance or Georgiana Darcy’s £30,000 dowry.
Bingley’s fortune drives the opening social machinery of the novel. Mrs Bennet immediately sees him as a desirable husband for one of her daughters, and his relationship with Jane develops amid anxieties about money, class, manners, and family connections. His wealth is therefore both a character detail and a major force in the plot.