Predominant Bétail Prices in England and Wales and Germany, in
October, 1905.
Commodities.
Sugar, white
Butter
Potatoes ...
Flour, wheaten
Milk
Beef
Mutton
Pork
Bacon
Coal
Paraffin oil
granulated per lb.
... per 7 lb.
... per qt.
... per lb.
per cwt.
per gal.
Predominant Prices in October, 1905.
England and
W ales.
2d.
Is. lid.*
2\d. to 3\d.
8d.
3d.
7 id.
Ed.
(7#.
1 4d.
lOd.
4d.
8&d.f
6d.$
9d.t
5d.j
7Id. to 81d.
Id.
91d.
Id.
9d.
Is.
8d.
Germany.
2|d., 2\d.
Is. Id. to Is. 2fd.
2^d. „ 3d.
ll^d. „ Is. l|d.
2#, 2#
I 7|d. to 8fd.
7|d.
8|d.
8#d.
10%d.
91d.
9id.
lid.
lid.
Is. Id.
lid.
Ratio of Mean
Predominant Price in
Germany to Mean
Predominant Price in
England, taken as 100.
119
105
88
140
75
122
137
123
123
124
135
* Mean of Colonial or Foreign and Danish,
t British or home-killed.
X Foreign or Colonial.
The predominant prices for England are cited from p. xxiii of the Report
on the Enquiry into Prices, &c., in the Towns of the United Kingdom. As
about 40 per cent, of all meat consumed in the British Isles is Foreign or
Colonial, and the percentage of foreign meat for working-class consumption is
certainly higher, it has been thought sufficient to take the average of the
predominant prices of the two classes of meat in each case for comparison
with the German figures. The price of " Foreign ” or Colonial butter has
been similarly combined with that of Danish. The German prices are cited
from the Table on p. above, It will be seen from the index numbers,
or ratios of German prices to English, in the last column that the prices
paid by the German working classes in October, 1905, were, in most cases,
from 20 to 40 per cent, higher than the prices paid by the English
working classes at the same period. But there were two very striking
exceptions, viz., the prices paid for milk and for potatoes. For milk the
German price was only 2\d. to 2Jd. a quart, as against 3d. to 4d. in England, a
difference amounting to 25 per cent, of the English price. In the case of
potatoes the predominant prices in Germany ranged from 2\d. to 3d. per 7 lbs.,
in England from 2^d. to 3\d. The difference is over 12 per cent, of the
English price. Of the remaining commodities, butter was about 5 per cent,
dearer in Germany, beef, pork, bacon and coal from 20 to 25 per cent, dearer,
mutton, wheaten flour, and paraffin oil oo to 40 per cent, dearer. If we take
the arithmetic mean of the above numbers' as a rough index to the relative
price levels of the two countries, for commodities common to both, it is 117 for
Germany, as compared with 100 in England.
It does not follow, however, that this ratio fairly represents the relative
prices paid in the two countries for the necessaries of existence. In the Report
on the United Kingdom, the price levels of different towns were compared by the
amount required to purchase the groceries, meat and coal in an approximate
average working-man’s budget. It seems fair to apply the same principle to
the present case, and to ask, if the average British working-man went to live in
Germany, and tried to live there as nearly as possible in the same way as he
had previously lived in England, purchasing the same food in the same
quantities, how much more would he have to pay ? An attempt has been
made to answer this question in the following comparative budgets
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