122 
BRESLAU. 
purchases. This discount is given in the form of stamps which the society 
redeems for cash at fixed intervals, in the manner described in the reports on 
other towns. (See e.g., Reports on Plauen, pp. 411, 412, and Barmen, p. 74.) 
An association registered as a co-operative society has also been formed 
among the grocers for the purpose of purchasing their trading stock in common, 
and so securing the advantages connected with buying on a large scale. 
(Ein- und Verkaufs-Genossenschaft Breslauer Colonialwaarenhändler.) This 
Society also carries on a co-operative bakery. It seems to be recognised among 
the local shopkeepers that the Co-operative Store Society, with its 66 branch 
stores and its large membership, acts as a regulator of the retail prices of a 
number of the principal household necessaries in Breslau, and a certain uniformity 
observable in the prices furnished in returns made by a number of tradespeople 
in different parts of the town as well as by the Co-operative Store Society appear 
to support this view. 
The prices of groceries and dairy produce in Breslau are comparatively low, 
while, on the other hand, meat is dear. Coal is fairly cheap, the Silesian coal 
fields being near at hand. If prices at Berlin be represented by 100, the index 
numbers for Breslau would be 93 for groceries and dairy produce, 113 for 
meat, and 97 for all food ; 83 for coal ; and 95 for these commodities taken 
together. The index number for rent and prices combined is 87. 
Groceries and other Commodities. 
The following Table, showing the predominant retail prices charged in 
Breslau for certain of the principal kinds of household provisions other than 
butchers’ meat in October, 1905, and June, 1906, is based upon the returns 
referred to. 
Predominant Prices paid by the Working Classes in October, 1905, 
and June, 1906. 
Commodity. 
Predominant Price 
October, 1905. 
June, 1906. 
Coffee (Santos) 
Sugar, White Granulated 
Bacon :— 
Fat ... 
Streaky 
Eggs (Austrian) 
Cheese (Limburg) 
Butter ... 
Margarine 
Potatoes 
Flour :— 
Wheat 
Rye ... 
Bread (of Rye) 
Milk ... 
Coal 
Paraffin :— 
American 
Russian 
per lb. 
per Is. 
per lb. 
per 7 lbs. 
per 4 lbs. 
per quart 
per cwt. 
per gallon 
lid. 
2d. 
9fd. to lid. 
9|d. „ lO^d. 
18 
7# 
is. 2Id. to Is. 2fd. 
6&d. 
2d. to 2\d. 
10 d. 
8&d. to 9|d. 
4 £d. 
2^d. 
Is. 0£d 
lOd. 
8d. 
lid. 
2d. 
8|d. to lid. 
8|d. „ 10¿d. 
18 
6|d. 
Is. 0\d. to is. Ofd. 
6^d. 
2d. to 2^d. 
lOd. 
8|d. to 9^d. 
5d. 
2id. 
Is. Old. 
lOd. 
8d. 
Meat. 
Breslau draws practically the whole of its meat supply from its own 
province (Silesia) and the neighbouring province of Posen, as is shown by the 
fact that 99 per cent, of the beef, 82 per cent, of the pork, 99 per cent, of the 
veal, and the whole of the mutton brought into the town in 1906 came from 
those two provinces. Increasing dearness and scarcity of meat are complained 
of by employers, workpeople, and butchers. That the complaints are not 
groundless may be seen from the official statistics of the wholesale prices