Cost of living in German towns

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1887156356

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Schmoller, Gustav von http://d-nb.info/gnd/118609378

Title:: Grundriß der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre

Place of publication:: Berlin [u.a.]

Publisher:: Duncker & Humblot

Year of publication:: 1900-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1887256288

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-242253

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Schmoller, Gustav von http://d-nb.info/gnd/118609378

Title:: Verkehr, Handel und Geldwesen. Wert und Preis. Kapital und Arbeit. Einkommen. Krisen, Klassenkämpfe, Handelspolitik. Historische Gesamtentwickelung

Volume count:: 2.1904

Place of publication:: Berlin [u.a.]

Publisher:: Duncker & Humblot

Year of publication:: 1904

Scope:: X, 719 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Drittes Buch. Der gesellschaftliche Prozeß des Güterumlaufes und der Einkommensverteilung

Collection:: Economics Books

xlv On the other hand the average German working man coming to England would not find his expenditure on food, &c., reduced in anything like so high a ratio as 118 :100 if he retained his accustomed habits. For he purchases, to take only two items that affect the question, 26 lbs. of potatoes against the Englishman’s 17 lbs. and 6J quarts of milk against the Englishman’s 5 quarts, and both potatoes and milk are dearer in this country than in Germany. Using in fact the approximate quantities of the average German budget, as employed for the comparison of the price levels in German towns, we obtain the figures of the Table below :— Cost of the average German Working-man's Budget (excluding Tea and Coffee) at the Predominant Prices paid hy the Working Classes of (1) England and Wales, (2) Germany, in October, 1905. Commodity. Quantity in average German Budget. Sugar Bacon Cheese Butter Potatoes Flour (wheaten) Bread (wheaten in England). Bread (wheat and rye in Germany) Milk Beef Pork Coal Total cost of the above ... i Index number ... 2 lb. ¿ : 25 „ 6# qts. 2* lb. H » 14 cwt. Predominant Prices at October, 1905, in England and Wales. 2d. per lb. Id. to 9r?. per lb. 7d. per lb. Is. 1 \d. per lb. 2\d. to B\d. per 7 lb. Sd. to 10c?. „ 4#¿?. to 5#í?. per 4 lb 3d. to 4d. per qt. j6#d. per lb. 7\d. to 8^c?. per lb. 9\d. to Is. per cwt. Germany. 24c?., 2\d. per lb. 8|d to 11c?. „ 5c?. to 6#t?. „ Is. lc?. to Is. 2|c?. „ 21c?. to 3c?. per 7 lb. ll#i?.tols.lM „ 4|c?. to 6#é?. per 4 lb. 2&C?., 2#c?. per qt. 7fc?. to 8fc?. per lb. 81c?. to lie?. „ lOf c?. to Is. 4c?. per cwt. Cost in pence of quantity in Col. 2 in England and Wales. 22# 14# 12# 16 141# 100 Germany ; ■a 35# 17 3 20 152 108 The average German emigrant to England would accordingly only decrease his expenditure in approximately the ratio of 108 :100. In this comparison, as in the preceding, tea and coffee are excluded. If we exclude bread as well, on the ground that the qualities are not the same in the two countries, bread being an item on which the German’s expenditure would be decreased by over 10 per cent, in spite of his substitution of white bread for grey, the ratio for the remaining commodities is only 106 :100. The Englishman, however, is hardly much concerned with this aspect of the matter. For him the rise in expenditure on food, &c., would be about 18 per cent, if he should go to Germany, in so far as he could purchase the same commodities at all. Before concluding this section on the comparative prices of England and Germany, it should be pointed out that the average working-class budgets of the two Reports, while sufficient for the purposes for which they were used, do not form a satisfactory basis for comparison of the prices paid, apart altogether from the relative unreliability of the data as compared with prices obtained directly from dealers doing a large working-class trade. In the first place the budgets were not collected at the same period in the two countries. The British budgets were collected during the years 1903-04, the German during the years 1906-07. Further, while the German budgets were drawn from all the towns of the present investigation, and from no others, the British budgets collected at an earlier date did not cover nearly so extensive a field as the subsequent inquiry into the conditions of the working classes in industrial towns.

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