XXVll
prices in Berlin being taken as the base (= 100). In order to allow lor the
varying importance of the prices of the different articles, as judged by the normal
weekly expenditure of a working-class family, recourse was had to “ weighting,”
and for this purpose average quantities estimated from the Budgets
shown on p. xx, have been adopted, but “bread and hour” have been
divided into 25 lbs. of bread and 2 lbs. of flour (the remaining ¿ lb. being
omitted as representing probably various kinds of fancy bread and pastry).
For meat only beef and pork have been included, with weights of 2} lbs. and
If lbs. respectively. No information as to the average coal consumption per
family per week was given in the budgets, but from independent enquiries it
appears that an estimate of 1^ cwt. may be taken as approximately correct.
The following, therefore, are the quantities of the selected commodities assumed,
on the basis of 5,046 weekly budgets, to be consumed by a German workingclass
family in a normal week :—
Coffee ... ... ...
Sugar (white granulated)
Bacon
Cheese
Butter
Eggs
Potatoes
fib.
2 lbs.
f lb-¿lb.
If lbs.
10
26 lbs.
Flour (wheaten)
Bread...
Milk ...
Beef ...
Pork ...
Coal ...
2 lbs.
25 lbs.
6& qts.
2Í lbs.
If lbs.
1 Jr cwt.
The predominant prices in each town as ascertained for the various articles
are weighted in accordance with the above quantities, the total expenditure so
obtained being expressed as a percentage of the corresponding total as compiled
for Berlin ; the results are shown in the following Table :—-Prices
Index Numbers in Descending Order.
Berlin = 100.
Town.
Index
No.
Town.
Index
No.
Town.
Index
No.
Barmen
Mannheim
Mülhausen
Stuttgart
Munich
Nuremberg
Remscheid
Bremen
Chemnitz
Dresden
Aachen
110
109
109
108
107
107
105
105
1(>5
103
103
Düsseldorf
Elberfeld
Plauen
Königsberg
Brunswick
Solingen
Aschaffenburg
Leipzig
Crefeld
Berlin
Stettin
102 I Essen
102
102
101
101
101
101
101
Zwickau
Oschersleben
Stassf urt
Magdeburg ...
Hamburg-Altona
Dantzig
Bochum
100 i Dortmund
100
99
Breslau
Königshütte...
99
98
98
98
97
97
97
96
96
95
86
There are thus no less than 20 out of the 33 towns which have a prices
index number higher than Berlin. The total difference between the highest
and lowest towns is 24 points, as compared with 72 points in the case of rents ;
if, however, Königshütte (whose index number for prices is very low) be
excluded, the maximum difference in price levels is only 15 points. It will be
observed that five out of the six towns at the head of the list are situated in
South Germany. The following Table shows the prices index numbers for
each of the geographical groups for which rent index numbers have already
d 2
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