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 coalfields
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
