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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ASCHAFFENBURG. $9 of 80s. a week, when divided between 72 or 84 hours of work, only give a rate per hour of between 4d. and 5d., without deductions, and in most cases 3d. and 3\d. represent a maximum hourly rate. The Aschaffenburg Chamber of Commerce comments in its report for 1905 : fc£ It is an evil which should be discouraged that in the endeavour to ) get on ’ as quickly as possible the tailors work long hours and keep their assistants at work as long. The tailors themselves admit the charge, but on the other hand they plead that as they work by piece and are subject to the fluctuations of the market, they must make the best of every good opportunity when it occurs. But, adds the Chamber of Commerce, “ the circumstance that by far the greater part of the home workers engaged in the Aschaffenburg clothing industry do not sit uninterruptedly in the workshop, but have simultaneous employment in agriculture, has an extremely favourable influence on their health.” This is the effect that would he anticipated did a systematic combination of indoor and outdoor work really exist. In practice, however, it is not generally the case that the tailor devotes any large portion of his time to farm work, and very many of the workers of both sexes never once work on the farm all the year round. A common arrangement is for the head of the family to he responsible for the farm and for grown-up children to work at the sewing machines and on the bench, the mother and the younger people, if such exist, helping as occasion offers. Ho one who has seen the workers in their homes can doubt that overwork is common. In order to see the village tailors of the Aschaffenburg clothing trade at work it is not necessary to go far. A typical village is Sulzbach, lying only a few miles away, and having a population of about 1,000. In 25 per cent, of its households tailoring is carried on, and it is noteworthy that of the persons so employed over 80 per cent, are adults, more than half of these being females, while 35 per cent, are married. The village is irregularly built, and some of the older houses, which stood long before the clothing trade brought hitherto unknown sources of income to the village, are typical peasant dwellings of the poorer sort. The newer houses, on the other hand, are very good, and reveal a degreee of comfort and welfare which is seldom characteristic of rural life under normal conditions. They are as a rule single-family houses, consisting of a ground floor and an upper story or attic, giving two rooms and a kitchen below and two rooms above. The living and bedrooms vary in size from 160 to 200 square feet, but the kitchens are little more than half this size. The windows are small, but that is a peculiarity of the locality. A house of this kind, with the land upon which it stands, costs about £200. The smaller farms have an area of some 30 ares or J acre, the larger ones of 2 hectares or 5 acres. The cropped land is devoted to rye, oats, maize and potatoes. Few of these rural tailors are merely tenants : a system ot peasant proprietorship on a small scale is the rule of the country, though only in exceptional cases are the holdings entirely unencumbered. A frugal family first save £50, £75, or £100, and whatever beyond this is necessary to the purchase of a little plot of land they borrow from the Raiffeisen credit bank at 4 or A\ per cent. The cost of land per are (= 100 square metres = nearly 4 poles) varies from 10s. to £2 10s. according to position, and upon both land and buildings the bank is generally ready to lend up to two-thirds of the ascertained value. After the land comes the house, as soon as the savings have acrain accumulated, so that another appeal can be made to the bank, and the ambition of the peasant tailor is then complete. Almost everyone saves, be it little or much. Every Sunday a treasurer goes round to the tailors’ houses to receive the surplus money that can be spared as a result of the weekly settlement in Aschaffenburg, and as soon as. £5 has accumulated in any man’s name it is deposited in the bank and receives interest.. The weekly savings may not exceed 2s, 3 5 . or 4s., but in many cases a family is able to put by as much as £20 and £25 in the course of the year. In a town of Aschaffenburg’s size it is impossible that the efforts which employers make, outside the obligations imposed by the law, for the ameliora tion of their workpeople’s condition can be on a ambitious scale. Nevertheless, much is done by them to encourage on the workers’ part a feeling of solidarity 29088 tí 2

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