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.

204 DRESDEN. bull beef has risen by no less than 24’5 per cent., fifth-grade cow beef by 20 per cent., and second-grade pork by 14*9 per cent, in the eight years covered by the Table. The manner in which the consumption of meat has been affected by this rise in the price may be seen from the following Table, showing the per capita consumption of meat in Dresden estimated from the Municipal slaughterhouse returns in each of the 10 years 1896-1905 :— Year. 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 Beef. lbs. 46- 97 47- 61 48- 05 47-59 47-08 45 96 4501 40-55 40-30 38-08 Veal. lbs. 17-58 17-07 16-87 16-24 1654 16 54 1525 1324 1373 3232 Mutton and Goats- flesh. lbs. 7-04 6-97 6-78 6-84 6-69 6-91 6-51 5-19 4-71 4-97 Pork and Bacon. lbs. 68-11 66-40 6371 65 93 68-66 64-46 57-95 5652 60-65 5392 Horse flesh. lbs. 1-03 1-01 1-17 125 128 1-36 1-34 108 1-01 1-06 Game Prepared and Meats, &c.,J Poultry. I Imported. [ lbs. 9 24 9-15 8-65 8-58 6-56 6-71 6- 42 7- 74 10-34 8- 91 lbs. 3-19 330 376 3 85 3-50 330 3-26 2-53 2-62 2-88 Total. lbs. 153-16 151-51 148-99 150-28 150-31 145-24 135-74 126-85 13336 122-14 Thus, taking meat of all kinds, the consumption per head has fallen in 9 years from 153 lbs. to 122 lbs., or no less than 20 per cent. The consump tion of beef has fallen from 47 lbs. to 38 lbs., or 19 per cent., and that of pork and bacon from 68 lbs. to 54 lbs., or 6 per cent. Exactly three-fourths of all the meat consumed comes under one or other of these kinds (which also include sausages composed largely of beef or pork), and so far as veal, mutton, game and poultry are concerned, the working-class consumption is practically negligible. The only kind of meat of which the consumption has not regularly decreased is horseflesh, though the per capita figure for 1905, viz., 1*06 lbs., was considerably below those recorded in the years of depression, 1900-1902, when the con sumption amounted on the average to 132 lbs. per head of population per annum. There are 16 establishments in Dresden where nothing but horseflesh (occasionally also dogflesh) is sold. Comparatively little horseflesh is eaten in summer. The leading dealer in this article in Dresden informed the writer that he slaughters on the average only 25 horses per week in the summer as com pared with 60 in the winter months. The retail price of this description of meat is 4d. per pound all over Dresden, irrespective of the cut, except in the case of the fillet, which costs a penny more. Horse fat is sold at 5\d. per pound. The commoner kinds of sausage (i.e., imitation “ Blutwurst,” “ Leber wurst,” and “Knoblauchwurst”), made of horseflesh, and frankly sold as .such, cost 4cl. per pound, horse sausage made in imitation of “ Metwurst,” however, costs 5\d. per pound, while imitation “ Cervelatwurst ” sells for as much as 8Jc/. per pound—about half the price of the genuine article, which is supposed to be made of venison. The amount of dogflesh eaten in Dresden is very small. The total consumption in 1902 was only 16 cwt., and in 1903, 31 cwt. Ko later figures have been published, but the quantity of this kind of meat eaten is stated to be increasing. The retail price is 4d. per pound. Turning again to the question of the aggregate meat consumption, it might seem that the figure for 1905, viz., 122 pounds per head of population, though greatly reduced in comparison with ten years ago, is still high enough % prove that the complaints of meat scarcity which are to be heard on all sides in Dresden are exaggerated. It has to be remembered, however, that in the above figure the difference in the quantities consumed by rich and poor, respectively, is disregarded. But nobody who has had an opportunity of observing the habits of the middle and well-to-do classes in Germany can avoid the conclusion that they are very large meat eaters. Dresden contains more than the average proportion of such persons, and these account for a large share of the total meat -consumption. The annual per capita consumption of meat among the working classes is less than that shown above for the whole population. This fact was

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation