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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I ¿ xliv Cost of the average British Working-man’s Budget (excluding Tea and Coffee) at the predominant prices paid by the Working Classes of (1) England and Wales, (2) Germany, in October, 1905. 2. Commodity, Quantity in average British Budget. Predominant Prices at October, 1905, in England and Wales. Germany. Cost in Pence of quantity in Col. 2 in England and Wales. Germany, Sugar Bacon Cheese Butter Potatoes Flour (wheaten) Bread (wheaten, in England). Equivalent wheaten flour in Germany, Milk ... Beef ... Pork ... Mutton Coal ... 5^ lb. St ;; 2 » 17 „ 10 „ 22 „ 22 „ 5 qts. U lb. 01 „ 4 „ 2 cwt. 2d. per lb. 7d. to 9d. per lb. Id. per lb. Is. 1 \d. per lb. 2\d. to 3^(7. per 7 lb. 8(7. to 10d. „ 4\d. to 5\d. per 4 lb. 3d. to Ad. per qt. 6f(7. per lb. l\d. to 8\d. per lb. d. per lb. 9\d. to Is. per cwt. Total cost of the above... Index Number 2\d., 2\d. per lb. 8f(7. to 11(7. „ 5d. ,, G^d. ,, Is. Id. to Is. 2§d. per lb. 2\d. to 3d. per 7 lb. ll^e7.to Is. Ifd. „ 11 \d. to Is. If d. per 7 lb, 2\d., 2|d. per qt. 7|d. to 8|d. per lb. 8# „ lid. „ 7\d. „ 9\d. „ 10|(7. to Is. Ad. per cwt. 124 185 100 39| if 1 5 13* 26$ 2184 118 The answer obtained in this way is that the English working man would have to spend nearly 219 pence in Germany in order to purchase the same goods that he could have bought for 185 pence in England, or in other words he would have to increase his expenditure in the ratio of 100 to 118. This method of approaching the question has, accordingly, led again to_ practically the same conclusion, viz., that prices in Germany may be taken as about 18 per cent, higher than in England. But the difficulties of the comparison are illustrated by the omissions and assumptions made in compiling the two budgets used. The Englishman’s tea has been omitted, as he would find it simply unobtainable in Germany, at a price which he could pay. If he substituted the German’s usual j lb. of coffee at 11 d. for his accustomed 0'6 lb. of tea at Is. 6(7., he would save 2\d. Again, as the English man could seldom purchase white household bread in Germany, we have credited him with the purchase of 22 lbs. of flour, assuming, say, that he would bake at home. Actually 22 lbs. of flour are not required for making 22 lbs. of bread, but no allowance has been made for the cost of other materials nor of baking, and as the predominant cost of bread per lb. "in England (1*25(7.) is almost identical with the cost of flour (1*29(7.) the method adopted seems fair. If he consumed instead 22 lbs. of German grey bread, in lieu of the wheaten bread to which he was accustomed in England, he would save about 8 Ä d. a week. If then our English emigrant took to grey bread and coffee in place of white bread and tea, his total weekly expenditure would be only about 12 per cent, more than in England. But that is merely to say that if he lived more like the German his expenditure would be less ; and the mode in which the above table has been constructed gives the more accurate answer to the question as to the expenditure of an English emigrant who retained, as far as possible, his English habits and English food. It is proposed, therefore to take the figure 118 as representing, for working-class expenditure from ’ the English standpoint, the price level in Germany as compared with the price level in England.

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