Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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VI The same method of index numbers has also been adopted in comparing in the second part of the General Report the results of the investigations made in Germany and the United Kingdom respectively. The comparison actually made is with England, as the various divisions of the United Kingdom were treated separately in the Report already mentioned, the levels of the cost of living in Scotland and Ireland in relation to that of England being determined by separate series of index numbers'. Thus any one who desires to do so can without difficulty compare the figures for Germany with those for Scotland or Ireland. The comparison relates to rent and prices, and also to wages in three comparable groups of occupations—the building trades, engineering, and printing. In order to illustrate as concretely as possible the results obtained by this comparison, the illustration has been adopted of an English workman migrating to Germany, working there at his old trade, and endeavouring to maintain his accustomed dietary and standard of housing. It was pointed out in the Prefatory Note (p. vi.) to the Report on the Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom that, valuable as the method of index numbers is as a means of consolidating data and comparing things otherwise difficult to measure, the results which it yields are at best only approximate, and can be regarded only as subject to many qualifications, arising, for instance, in the case of prices, from differences in the articles or amounts of articles consumed in various parts of a country, or in the case of rents from differences in the kind of accommodation. This difficulty, already considerable when one part of a country is compared with another, becomes much more accentuated when the comparison is attempted to be made between two countries which differ greatly from each other in the customs and standard of living of their inhabitants. Between the United Kingdom and Germany the differences in some respects are very marked. The prevalent type of working-class housing in England and Wales, and to a lesser degree in Ireland, is a self-contained two- storied dwelling, possessing generally four or five rooms and a separate scullery ; in Germany the predominant type is a fiat of two or three rooms with appurtenances, in a large tenement house. The German housing system thus approximates more closely to the Scottish type—blocks of flats of two, three, or four stories—than to the English. English, but not Scotch, rents of working- class dwellings usually include local taxation, which is based on the rentable value of the dwelling ; in Germany local taxation is levied on an entirely different basis, and is not included in rent. In regard to food- the British workman’s meat consists mainly of beef and mutton, whilst pork (even including bacon) is relatively small in amount ; the German workman, on the other hand, eats chiefly pork (including sausage) and beef, and only a very little mutton. The pure wheat bread °eaten by the working classes of the United Kingdom is replaced in Germany either by pure rye bread, or more commonly by some mixture of rye and wheat. These are only a few indications of the difficulties which arise in international comparisons, and though a full account is given in the General Report of the methods which have been adopted in the endeavour to overcome the difficulties, it appears desirable to repeat here the warning that in the construction of comparative index numbers it is impossible to make full allowance for diversity of national habits, tastes, and prejudices. Nevertheless, as will be seen from the General Report, international comparisons can be made by these means, and the results obtained are of great interest and value. Thus it may be pointed out that there is little if any difference between the general levels of rent in Germany and England, though rents in England include a considerable element of local taxation, whilst rents in Germany do not ; and that rents in Berlin exceed those of all the other German towns investigated (except Stuttgart) to practically the same extent as rents in London exceed those which prevail in other towns of the United Kingdom. Further the range of town price-levels in Germany, as in the United Kingdom, is not very great, though somewhat wider in the case of the German

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