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. 68 The income tax is the only tax which falls on the working classes, and it falls lightly owing to a system of graduation which relieves small incomes. At present the super-tax levied for local purposes is 140 per cent, of the State income tax, so that wage earners pay taxes as follows :— Class. Income. £25 or less Over £25 but not over £37 10s. £37 10s. £45 £52 10s. £60 £70 £80 £90 £45 £52 10s. £60 £70 £80 £90 £100 State Income Tax. S. d. 0 6 6 0 8 0 10 0 Municipal Super-tax. s. d. 0 8& 1 5 2 9& 4 2& 5 74 7 0 8 4§ 11 2& 14 0" Total. s. d. ? ! 12 0 14 4| 19 2% 24 0 There is no absolute exemption, since the local franchise is dependent upon the payment of taxation. There is a good deal of speculative building at Aschaffenburg, for banks and other loan agencies freely advance money on first mortgage at 4 per cent, and these credit facilities are largely used. Such owners count on living rent free by the letting of a couple of houses. A net return of 6 per cent, is obtained without difficulty. Thus in one case investigated a house of three tenements rented at £2 14^. per month together gave the owner £6 Is. 3d. per cent, upon his purchase money after the payment of repairs and water rent, and a larger property, whose three tenements were rented at £3 12s. per month, yielded £6 4s. per cent, after the same deductions. So far neither the municipality nor the philanthropic employer has seriously invaded the private builder’s domain. The town owns but a few dwellings, and they are intended for officials only. One of the larger firms of paper manufacturers owns twenty houses, divided into tenements of three and four rooms, which are let to the workpeople at the reduced rent of 18s. a month. Each tenant has also a small garden plot. The houses were bought standing, however, and were not built as an experiment in housing reform. The municipal authority exercises a systematic though not over-rigorous form of house inspection by means of a Housing Commission which was called into existence in 1901. The members consist of the President of the Building Bureau (Bauamt), the local Medical Officer of Health, a legal official, and two citizens, who are appointed for a period of six years. It is the business of this Commission to supervise all dwellings of three or fewer rooms, all dwellings in which lodgers are received for payment, all professional lodging-houses, and such others as may for special reasons need oversight. In the event of abuses being discovered the offenders are first " admonished,” then “ warned,” and- only in bad cases are severer measures resorted to, for the .Commission is a tentative institution and it prefers the velvet glove method of reformation. Retail Prices. The prices of ordinary groceries of the kind comprised in the term “colonial produce” naturally do not differ materially between town and town. It is in respect of country produce that Aschaffenburg complains of high prices. Its own rural “ Hinterland ” does not provide the requisite supplies, for in the Spessart region kitchen gardening is not extensively followed, the peasants beino- too much engrossed in industrial employments, and the market is largely supplied from other towns, like Schweinfurt and Würzburg. Moreover Aschaffenburg suffers from the propinquity of Frankfort, which attracts supplies that should naturally remain in Bavaria. On the whole, however, it cannot be said that prices in. Aschaffenburg are high. Taking predominant prices in Berlin as 10Ò, the Aschaffenburg index numbers are. 98 for groceries and dairy produce, 102 for meat, and 99 for these two groups combined. The

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