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Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 832279064

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-64432

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Worms, Émile

Title:: L' Allemagne économique ou histoire du Zollverein Allemand

Place of publication:: Paris

Publisher:: Ainé

Year of publication:: 1874

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (VII, 631 S)

Collection:: Economics Books

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LEIPZIG. Leipzig, which may be said to be the commercial capital of the kingdom of Saxony, is situated like Dresden, the political capital, at some distance from the purely industrial zone, which extends from Plauen to Chemnitz along the German slopes of the Erzgebirge. The city lies in a fertile agricultural plain in the extreme north of the Saxon State, close to the southern border of the Prussian province of the same name, and within half-an-hour’s train journey of the great Prussian lignite mines at Halle. It has attained its present prominence among the great trading cities of Germany in spite of the disadvantage of being without any such special facilities for water transport as are enjoyed by many of the other great cities of Germany. Thus, while Dresden and Magdeburg are traversed by the Elbe, Munich by the Isar, and Breslau by the Oder, Leipzig, which is practically without water transport, ranks above them all in commercial importance, Berlin and Hamburg alone being its superiors in this respect. The city began to prosper early in the sixteenth century, when the Emperor Maximilian secured to it the privilege, denied to all other towns within a radius of 16 German miles, of holding annual fairs or markets. Since that time three great fairs, visited by buyers and sellers from all parts of Europe, have been held in the town regularly every year at New Year, Easter and Michaelmas respectively. The New Year fair lasts a fortnight, and is of interest only to the leather trade. The Easter and Michaelmas fairs each last three weeks, and are occasions for the purchase and sale of a great variety of goods, including books, furs, woollen and linen stuffs, groceries, toys, drugs, glass, china, majolica and pottery ware. The Easter fair is visited by fur dealers from countries so remote as Siberia, China, Japan, Tibet, and North and South America. It would seem as if the growing demand for improved means of transport for the merchants and merchandise proceeding to and from the Leipzig fairs must have suggested the first serious step in the introduction of railways into Germany. For, in December, 1837, when the railway from Leipzig to Dresden, was first opened to traffic, only one line of railway, four miles in length, which had been constructed 18 months previously, was in operation in Germany, viz., that between Niiremburg and Fürth. Since that time Leipzig, mainly owing to its fairs, has grown into a place of such importance in the German railway system that the State Railway Authorities of Prussia and Saxony have felt justified in deciding on the expenditure of 148,000,000 marks, or about £7,400,000, in building a new central railway station in the town. The municipality is contributing £900,000, while each of the two States referred to contributes £3,250,000 towards this new station, which is now in course of erection, and will, when finished, be the largest of the many great railway stations in Germany. Leipzig is noted among German cities for the multitude and wealth of the endowments left by its merchant citizens both in olden and modern times, and administered by the municipality. The town is also a very large landowner. Irrespective of the areas owned by one of the great endowments which it administers, and apart from the sites occupied by the town hall, municipal schools, gas, electricity and "water works, slaughterhouse, market, theatres, hospitals, and other public buildings, it owns about one-half of all the land comprised within the municipal area. It has long been part of its policy to purchase agricultural land at the outskirts, or beyond the precincts of the town, in anticipation of its becoming valuable for building purposes, and pending the maturing process much of this property is leased for agricultural purposes. Thus the receipts of the municipality in respect of agricultural rents amounted to £6,000 in 1904. In the same year it purchased 251 acres of land at the outskirts at an average price of £4 12s. 6d. per acre, and sold six acres of land matured for building at an average price of £15,000 per acre.

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