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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xlvi Budgets.—The details as to the budgets collected from German working- class families have been set out above (pp. xviii-xxiv). The British budgets were not dealt with in quite as full detail in the Report on the United Kingdom, as they had been obtained in an earlier investigation, to the Report on which reference must be made for the full particulars ([Cd. 2337], 1904). It is not possible to compare the two sets of budgets as a whole, as representing the conditions and standard of comfort prevailing among the working classes of the two countries, since the various grades of income are in neither case represented in their true proportions. It is, however, of some interest to compare the budgets relating to families with identical incomes in the two countries. We can learn from the comparison how the English and German housewife respectively, having a given sum of money to spend, would apportion the expenditure on the different items of food, and what results are obtained from the outlay in each case. For this purpose the groups of German and English families with incomes of 25s. and under 30s., 30s. and under 35s., and 35s. and under 40s. were taken. It will be seen from the condensed budgets given on pp. lx-lxi that the average income in each of these groups is almost the same in the two countries. It must, however, be remembered that the average number of children per family is, for the families represented by the budgets, distinctly lower in Germany than in the United Kingdom ; the differences are shown in the tables yited. The percentage of the family income spent on food (excluding beer) is slightly higher in England than in Germany for each of the three income-classes, but the difference may be more than accounted for by the smaller households of the latter country. The actual percentages run as follows :— Limits of Weekly Income. Percentage of Income spent on Food. United Kingdom. Germany. 25s. and under 30s. ... 30s. ,, 3ds. ... 3as. ,, 40s. ... 66 65 61 62 59 58 As regards the articles on which this portion of the family income is spent, the salient points of difference are as follows : The bread of the German working classes is, with very few exceptions, not pure wheaten bread as in the British Isles, but bread baked from a mixture of rye and wheaten flours in various proportions. In towns where pure rye bread is consumed it is frequently eaten as a sandwich with slices of white bread. There is practically no home baking such as still survives in some towns of the north of England, all bread being baker’s bread. As regards the meat, the fresh meats chiefly consumed are beef and pork, as against beef and mutton in England. Mutton, in fact, appears to be somewhat despised in Germany, and very little is consumed by any class of the population. In addition to this consumption of fresh meat, there is a very large consumption of sausage in various forms, over a quarter (by weight) of the total meat consumed being sausage ou the average of the German budgets (cf. p. xxi). On the other hand, in most towns, there is a relatively small consumption of items corresponding to those which form the bulk of the “ other meat ” in the English budgets, i.e., sheep’s heads, tripe, heart, liver, &c., and tinned meats ; the place of these in the bill of fare of the German working class is for the most part taken by sausage. There is no tea bought by the working man in Germany, the equivalent drink being coffee, mixed with such cheaper substitutes as roast barley, and " malt coffee.” The differences in the amounts consumed and the sums spent on the chief commodities are brought out by the condensed budgets given on pp. lx, lxi, and by the following Tables based thereon.

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