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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STUTTGART. 477 promoted by a “ Wurtemberg League for Trade and Industry,” whose object it is “ to combat in all legal ways the injurious excrescences of economic life, and especially the co-operative stores, hawking and travelling in the retail trade, itinerant cheap-jacks, the warehouses, and the contract system.” Both the co-operators and the private traders publish small newspapers which energetically advocate their respective theories of trade. Meat. The one public market hall of Stuttgart is so small, and the provision made within it for the sale of meat so limited, that as a centre of distribution it is of little consequence as compared with the butchers’ shops which are to be found :'n every important street. It is not the general rule for butchers to do an all-round trade in fresh meat ; the best butchers confine themselves to beef, mutton, and veal ; many butchers do not sell mutton at all, and pork is largely sold in special shops devoted entirely to that meat, both fresh and cured, or prepared in the form of sausage. The slaughter-house, through which all the meat exposed for sale must pass,is in private hands. It is here, however, that the official veterinary inspection of animals intended for food takes place, an inspection which is thorough and affords the public every reasonable guarantee against injury. The grazing districts of \\ urtemberg supply Stuttgart with a very large proportion of its flesh food, except in the case of beef, of which much comes from Bavaria through the markets of Munich and Nuremberg ; during 1905 Austria also sent a considerable number of live cattle to Stuttgart, but since the introduction of the new Customs Tariff this source of supply has been cut off. Mutton comes from various parts of Wurtemburg and also from Bavaria. The pork is largely of home production, but some comes from North Germany. The veal is likewise of Wurtemberg origin. Yet the Stuttgart working classes are not great meat eaters; as in Wurtemberg generally, farinaceous food, in the form of puddings and especially dumplings, takes the place on the dinner and supper table which in North Germany is given to meat and meat preparations. Of mutton, as in most parts of Germany, hardly any is eaten—a certain prejudice appears to be the explana tion ; and fish is even more disregarded. It is a notable fact that the mutton consumed in Stuttgart does not form 3 per cent, of the entire flesh food which passes yearly through the abattoir. The meat consumption of Stuttgart, including fowl and game, averaged over the whole population, amounted in 1900, when the maximum was reached, to 147*8 lb. per head; in 1903 it was 143 lb. per head; in 1904 it was 140*8 lb. per head ; and in 1905 the consumption was estimated at 125 5 lb. per head, though the data for calculation are no longer so exact since the abolition of the municipal tax on meat in April of the latter year. Imported sausage is not included in this estimate. An analysis of 156 returns of weekly meat consumption obtained for the purpose of the present report from working-class families, containing 655 persons, showed a weekly consumption per head of 201 ounces, which would mean a little over 67 lb. a year. Of the meat consumed 42 per cent, was beef, 19 per cent, pork and bacon, and 27 per cent, sausage. The Stuttgart working man has other peculiarities in the matter of his meat diet. He will not eat fat and he has a rooted aversion to minced meat, which in North Germany is the principal ingredient in several dishes and especially in fricandedles and a highly-seasoned dish known as “German steak.” The fat rejected in the butcher’s shop is melted down and serves culinary purposes in other ways. Smoked bacon is seldom eaten raw in Wurtemberg, because it is not thoroughly cured, whether fat or streaky. Such streaky bacon as is so eaten is not of local origin, but comes either from the Black Forest or North Germany, though also in a less degree from the Swabian Alp, a mountain district between the Neckar and the Danube, the “ country bacon ” (Bauernspeck) from which has a high reputation. In Stuttgart as in some parts of Bavaria it is customary to charge a uniform price for most cuts of meat, whether beef, mutton, veal, or pork. The only

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