VI 
The same method of index numbers has also been adopted in comparing in 
the second part of the General Report the results of the investigations made in 
Germany and the United Kingdom respectively. The comparison actually 
made is with England, as the various divisions of the United Kingdom were 
treated separately in the Report already mentioned, the levels of the cost of 
living in Scotland and Ireland in relation to that of England being determined 
by separate series of index numbers'. Thus any one who desires to do so can 
without difficulty compare the figures for Germany with those for Scotland 
or Ireland. 
The comparison relates to rent and prices, and also to wages in three 
comparable groups of occupations—the building trades, engineering, and 
printing. In order to illustrate as concretely as possible the results obtained 
by this comparison, the illustration has been adopted of an English workman 
migrating to Germany, working there at his old trade, and endeavouring to 
maintain his accustomed dietary and standard of housing. 
It was pointed out in the Prefatory Note (p. vi.) to the Report on the 
Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom that, valuable as 
the method of index numbers is as a means of consolidating data and comparing 
things otherwise difficult to measure, the results which it yields are at best only 
approximate, and can be regarded only as subject to many qualifications, 
arising, for instance, in the case of prices, from differences in the articles or 
amounts of articles consumed in various parts of a country, or in the case of 
rents from differences in the kind of accommodation. This difficulty, already 
considerable when one part of a country is compared with another, becomes 
much more accentuated when the comparison is attempted to be made between 
two countries which differ greatly from each other in the customs and standard 
of living of their inhabitants. 
Between the United Kingdom and Germany the differences in some 
respects are very marked. The prevalent type of working-class housing in 
England and Wales, and to a lesser degree in Ireland, is a self-contained two- 
storied dwelling, possessing generally four or five rooms and a separate scullery ; 
in Germany the predominant type is a fiat of two or three rooms with 
appurtenances, in a large tenement house. The German housing system thus 
approximates more closely to the Scottish type—blocks of flats of two, three, or 
four stories—than to the English. English, but not Scotch, rents of working- 
class dwellings usually include local taxation, which is based on the rentable 
value of the dwelling ; in Germany local taxation is levied on an entirely 
different basis, and is not included in rent. In regard to food- the British 
workman’s meat consists mainly of beef and mutton, whilst pork (even 
including bacon) is relatively small in amount ; the German workman, on the 
other hand, eats chiefly pork (including sausage) and beef, and only a very 
little mutton. The pure wheat bread °eaten by the working classes of the 
United Kingdom is replaced in Germany either by pure rye bread, or more 
commonly by some mixture of rye and wheat. These are only a few indications 
of the difficulties which arise in international comparisons, and though a full 
account is given in the General Report of the methods which have been adopted 
in the endeavour to overcome the difficulties, it appears desirable to repeat here 
the warning that in the construction of comparative index numbers it is 
impossible to make full allowance for diversity of national habits, tastes, and 
prejudices. 
Nevertheless, as will be seen from the General Report, international 
comparisons can be made by these means, and the results obtained are of great 
interest and value. Thus it may be pointed out that there is little if any 
difference between the general levels of rent in Germany and England, though 
rents in England include a considerable element of local taxation, whilst rents 
in Germany do not ; and that rents in Berlin exceed those of all the other 
German towns investigated (except Stuttgart) to practically the same extent as 
rents in London exceed those which prevail in other towns of the United 
Kingdom. 
Further the range of town price-levels in Germany, as in the United 
Kingdom, is not very great, though somewhat wider in the case of the German