PREFATORY NOTE.
To the Secretary of the Board of Trade.
Sir,
The report which I have the honour to present herewith contains the
results of an investigation undertaken by the Board of Trade in the principal
industrial towns of the German Empire, in order to obtain, in regard, to the
condition of the working classes there, information comparable to that given
for the towns of the United Kingdom in the Report on the Cost of Living of
the Working Classes (Cd. 3864), issued by this Department in January, 1908.
The investigation has reference primarily to the rents of working-class
dwellings, the prices usually paid by the working classes for food and fuel, and
wages and hours of labour ; and a very large amount of original statistical
material of great value relating to these subjects has been collected. It is with
these matters that the General Report, and the separate Town Reports which
follow it, are mainly concerned ; but at the same time it has appeared desirable,
in order that the statistical data may be more fully understood, to include in
the Town Reports much additional information bearing on these subjects,
which was obtained in the course of the Enquiry. In order to arrive at some
estimate of the standard of living prevalent among the German industrial
classes, over five thousand budgets showing the expenditure on food by a
working-class family in a normal week, and representative of numerous
occupations and of all grades of working-class incomes^ were obtained from the
various towns, and the principal results furnished by an analysis of these
budgets are set out in the General Report.
As one of the main purposes of the investigation was to obtain information
which could be compared with that already procured for towns of the United
Kingdom, the Enquiry was conducted so far as practicable on identical lines, and
the statistical material collected relates in the main to the same date (October,
1905), though information was procured for a later date (March-April, 1908),
and is included in the Report, in a number of instances, particularly in regard
to prices and wages. All the German towns dealt with in the present volume
were visited, in some cases more than once, by Officers of the Department, and
much valuable assistance was readily given to them in their enquiries by the
Municipal Authorities of the towns investigated, in particular by the
Burgomasters and the Directors of the Municipal Statistical Bureaux, by the
Secretaries of Chambers of Commerce, by a large number of employers of
labour, by numerous officials of trade unions, by the Workmen’s Secretariates,
and by many tradespeople of all kinds, as well as by His Majesty’s Consular
Representatives in Germany. The cordial thanks of the Department are due to
all those who thus in various ways assisted in obtaining the very extensive and
detailed information which has now been brought together.
As a basis of comparison for the German towns among themselves the
levels of rents, prices, and wages in Berlin have been taken as standards, and
index numbers calculated for each of these items in every town, so as to afford
an indication of the relative levels of the towns. The index numbers for rents
and prices in each town have also been combined in a single index number, in
order to determine the relative level for each town of the cost of living of the
working classes, so far as it consists of expenditure on housing and food ; and
for this purpose, as the expenditure on food is much greatei than that on rent,
prices have been given a weight of four and rents a weight of one in the
construction of the combined index number.
In the matter of wages the comparison has been made only in respect of
certain occupations which are found to a greater or less extent in all the towns,
namely,, the building trades, engineering, printing, and some municipal
employments.
