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 twostoried
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 workingclass
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
