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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

ASCHAFFENBURG. 57 In the ordinary industrial life of Aschaffenburg there are few opportunities for women’s labour. The town has no textile industry of any consequence ; the workers in the clothing trade live for the most part outside in the villages ; hence the lighter operations incidental to the paper industry employ a majority of the women and girls who are classified as " industrial workers.” Taking the whole of these workers only 9*2 per cent, are females, and excluding the paper industry only 6*7 per cent, of the workers are females. The earnings of women are, nevertheless, an important factor in the household economy, and in the absence of more settled opportunities of bread-winning, female labour is employed in a variety of ways unusual in England. The task of newspaper distribution falls almost exclusively to women, who devote their spare hours to the work in the early and later hours of the day, and receive from the publishers a small sum monthly per copy delivered. Women may be seen drawing light carts in the streets, and they regularly come in from the country with loads of farm produce drawn by oxen or cows. Wood - chopping in the street is another occupation in which women of robust build frequently engage, though machines are taking the place of the hatchet in this industry, and one may see motor-driven guillotines cutting timber into faggots before the houses of the middle classes. At Aschaffenburg also women and even stalwart girls act as hod carriers for masons and bricklayers. In their heavy hods they carry up the inclined plane that conducts from the ground to the upper stories as many as 16 or 18 bricks,, each weighing 7 to 8 lb., making a load of well over a cwt. The mortar carriers take a lighter load. These women are paid 3s. to 3s. 6d. a day for 11 hours of such work. Not far from the town is a cigar industry of some extent, whose workers are mostly women and girls, who are employed both at home and in small factories. Standing at the outskirts of Aschaffenburg between 11 and 12 o’clock in the forenoon, upon one of the main highways which connect the town with the surrounding country, one may, on any day of the week save Sunday, observe a long procession of women and children bearing baskets and other food receptacles to the town. They come from the villages, bringing the dinners of the husbands, fathers, and brothers who are at work in the paper factories. It is an old tradition of Aschaffenburg’s industrial life that the workmen in these factories are to a large extent drawn from the country districts, where they live in houses of their own and follow the simpler kinds of agriculture on a small scale. Schweinheim, Glattbach, Haibach, Hösbach and Goldbach are some of the nearest villages which supply the factories with the needful labour. These workers are not townsmen who have migrated to the country ; they are the sons of peasants for whom the land has failed to provide adequate employment, but who yet, in looking to the town for a livelihood, retain a direct stake in the land as both cultivators and owners. The holdings are not large, and they do not represent agriculture in its more progressive forms. The maximum size is a " Tagwerk ” (literally “ day’s work ”) which is a little more than a third of a hectare or five-sixths of an acre, but the majority of the properties do not exceed a half or a third of this area. The land is also seldom found together ; as a rule it consists of small parcels which have been bought in different places as opportunity and means have allowed,, though this applies equally to the larger peasant properties. The result, of this arrangement is a great waste of time and labour, and a re-partition of the parcelled land would probably be a general boon. As it is, most of the land so held is situated from a mile to a mile and a half from the centre of the village. To purchase one of these small labourer’s properties does not require much capital. Half a “ Tagwerk ” can be bought for any sum between £10 and £50, according to the quality of the land, and a portion of the money can always be obtained on mortgage from the local Raiffeisen bank or from private banks in Aschaffenburg on long terms of repayment. The houses are acquired in the same way, by savings supplemented by a loan, the rate for which is usually 4 per cent. £250 will build a single-family house containing four or five rooms and a kitchen. All that is produced on these farms is used at home— rye, potatoes, beet, milk and butter, bacon, and vegetables. Only on larger 29388 H

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation