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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KLBËKFELD. 231 Meat. The great bulk of the meat retailed in Elberfeld is of native origin, and this applies as much to the shops patronised by the working classes as to those which for the most part depend on the middle classes. Frozen and chilled meat is virtually unknown. Such meat as comes from abroad is either Dutch or Danish, but the imports have almost ceased since the introduction of the revised tariff. The Elberfeld butchers draw their supplies of beef principally from Mecklenburg, Brunswick, Silesia, and East and West Prussia, the beef from the last-named provinces of Prussia coming through the Berlin market. The mutton is mostly of local origin, coming from Münsterland and Westphalia generally, but also in part from Mecklenburg and Brunswick. The veal comes largely from Westphalia and Oldenburg, and the pork from Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg. A stringent system of inspection is observed by the veterinary police, and the police regulations applicable to the sale of meat in shops are very carefully enforced. It is not permissible for buyers to touch meat with the naked hand, and dogs may on no account be taken into a shop ; not only so, but only clean, unused paper may be used for packing purposes. Beef and pork are the kinds of meat mostly bought by working people ; less mutton is eaten, and veal hardly at all on account of the high price. In general the lower qualities oí meat are bought except by the better paid artisan classes. The ruling prices for beef (except for steak, which is little bought by working people) were in October, 1905, from Id. to 9jc/. per lb., for mutton from 7|d. to 9|¡<¿., and for pork 9fa. It is to be noted also that there is a very large sale of sausage of various kinds, one merit oí which is that it is ready for eating and as a rule keeps fresh much longer than butcher’s meat. The following may be regarded as representative prices per lb. :—Pure pork sausage, 10^d. ; blood sausage, \\d. to 10Jt/. ; liver, Id. to 10^d. ; blood and tongue sausage, 11 ^d. ; pork and beef, 10^d. ; while the best “ Block ” sausage of prime beef and pork, which keeps for a long time, is sold at 1 s. 6d. Of these kinds of sausage the cheaper only are sold to the working classes. A working man’s wife as a rule buys meat in very small quantities. A quarter or half a pound is a common daily supply, and sausage is retailed in pennyworths ; only on Saturday are larger meat purchases made, though even then a pound and a half represents an exceptional transaction. It is impossible to give the annual consumption of meat per head of the entire population. Returns obtained for this report from 83 working-class households containing 446 persons showed an average weekly consumption per head of 21J ounces, or about 70 lb. a year. Of this approximately 27 per cent, was beef, 26 per cent, pork and bacon, and 19 per cent, sausage. No less than 17 per cent., or nearly three times as much as in other towns investigated, was " other meat,” and there is no doubt that this was largely horse flesh. At Elberfeld, as elsewhere, there are the usual horse butchers’ shops, though their trade has diminished owing to the higher price of carcases. The horses killed for food come for the most part from the rural districts. It no longer pays to import them from abroad since the duty has been increased. From £8 to £15 may be taken as the range of cost by the time the horse is in saleable condition. The usual retail prices at Elberfeld are from 5c/. to 6W. for the prime cuts known as “ filet ” and “ roast beef,” and 4\d. for the com moner cuts and for chopped meat. Where a restaurant is carried on as an adjunct to a horse butcher’s shop a liberal meal of this flesh, with potatoes added, can be obtained for 3d. or 3\d. The liver, kidneys, lung, and heart are sold for dogs’ meat. Horse sausages are also in regular demand, and a tariff of charges exists as complete in its way as that for the reputable beef and pork sausages : thus horse flesh with pork admixture, Q^d. to 7\d. per lb., liver sausage (also mixed), 3\d., cervelat sausage, 8 j¿d., all-horse sausage for eating hot, 3\d. Cured horse flesh is also sold rolled at 7^d. a pound, fat at 4jd., and soup bones at 1 \d. a pound. Meat prices in May, 1906, at the date of the present Enquiry, show no sensible change as compared with prices in October, 1905, as appears in the following Table :—

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