Geschichte des Bremer Binnenhandels im 19. Jahrhundert namentlich unter den alten Verkehrsformen und im Übergang

Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 89109413X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-7293

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Rauers, Friedrich http://d-nb.info/gnd/116364726

Title:: Geschichte des Bremer Binnenhandels im 19. Jahrhundert namentlich unter den alten Verkehrsformen und im Übergang

Place of publication:: Bremen

Publisher:: Verlag von Franz Leuwer

Year of publication:: 1913

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (282, 46 Seiten, [8] Blatt)

Digitisation:: 2017

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

AACHEN. 49 There is no great amount of professional house building and owning at Aachen. A few large properties are found in single hands, but a marked feature of the system of tenure is the existence of a large class of small owners, holding one or more blocks of tenements (though seldom more than one) and living on the spot. These householders are locally known as " four penny ” (“ vier-groschen”) landlords, yet they have their virtues. In the first place they are their own rent collectors ; hence there exists between landlord and tenant a direct personal tie, which in a large town is a consideration of importance. In the second place they live within reach of their tenants, and being thus able to exercise continual oversight they exert a powerful influence favourable to order, cleanliness and decorum. Many of these small landlords not only take an evident pride in keeping their property in good condition, but they control the habits of their tenants where control is needed. Where the owner does not live on the spot, an agent, who occupies one of the tenements—always on the ground floor or the first story—receives his rents and exercises the regulative functions of the proprietor. His usual remuneration is a rent-free dwelling, though payment by commission is also common. A less laudable arrangement is the letting of whole blocks of dwellings to local residents who sub-let them for a profit. Here a tendency to force rents to as high a level as possible is inevitable, and where in addition the tenant-in-chief is a shop-keeper as well, an indirect form of pressure can be exerted on the tenants in the matter of trading. The disadvantage of this form of sub-letting is that there is every form of inducement on the part of the speculator to aim at rack rents, for he can only recoup himself'and protect himself against risks by requiring from the tenant something over and above what the landlord himself regards as a legitimate rent. These arrangements are made only from month to month, since the risk of loss by vacancies is too great to tempt even the most venture some to take a property on lease. As a rule a whole “ house ” of ten or a dozen dwellings is rented in this way, but two houses are also frequently rented, and in one case a large landlord has let the whole of his working class property, to the extent of 150 tenements, in this manner. The tenant-in-chief pays the water dues and the cost of chimney-sweeping, and also defrays the cost of all repairs below 5s. Retail Prices. Groceries and other Commodities. The working classes of Aachen buy to a very exceptional extent in the small provision shops which are found in abundance in the industrial quarters. There are no multiple undertakings of any consequence, and though there are two Co-operative Societies they do not sell to the public generally. Co-opera tion has not, in fact, taken firm root in the town, and the explanation is due to three things—to a certain conservatism which characterises the population in all matters of custom and use, a disinclination to associate for the furtherance of common ends, and perhaps even more the preference of a large section of the working classes for credit, which is against the principles of orthodox co-operation. The favourite domestic beverage is coffee, which is drunk in all degrees of strength, and both “ black” and "white" (i.e., with milk) according to taste ; the prevalent price in October, 1905, was 11 d. per pound. Tea is not drunk by the working classes, and to no great extent by others, though its use would appear to be increasing. The working class grocer only “ stocks ” two kinds of sugar, lump (or “ cube ”) sugar for coffee and white granulated for general cooking purposes. The former costs from 2^d. to 3d. and the latter about 2±d. per lb. The favourite cheese is Limburg, which was sold in pats of about 11 lb. at a price of about 5d. per lb. Dutch cheese at 8|d. to ILL per lb. was also largely eaten, Swiss cheese at 11 d. to Is. Id. per lb. to a smaller extent, and a host of special and fancy cheeses are offered in the better shops, but they are delicacies beyond the reach of the working classes. On the whole quite as much fresh butter as margarine is eaten, save by poorer families, though for cooking margarine is universally bought. Much of the butter is imported from Switzerland and Holland and is known technically as “sweet cream butter.” The prevalent price in 1905 was Is. Id. to Is. 2|d. per lb. The usual domestic loaf, the only one standardised by the Bakers’ Gr 29088

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation