XIV
average of the ratios gave an index number for the town compared with the
predominant level of the towns investigated. The resultant index number for
Berlin was then taken as a basis and the index numbers for the other towns
adjusted accordingly.
In the following Table the index numbers so calculated are given, showing
the relative level of rents in each of the German towns as compared with Berlin,
the predominant rents in the capital being taken as the base ( = 100).
Rent Index Numbers in Descending Order.
Town.
Berlin
Stuttgart
Düsseldorf ..
Dortmund ..
Aschaffenburg
Hamburg
Mannheim
Königsberg
Munich
Essen
Solingen
Index
No.
100
97
79
68
67
66
64
62
63
62
61
Town.
Bochum
Elberfeld
Barmen
Remscheid
Breslau
Dresden
Nuremberg
Aachen
Crefeld
Bremen
Plauen
Index
No.
57
57
57
56
56
54
53
53
52
52
52
Town.
Leipzig
Dantzig
Mülhausen
Königshütte
Stettin
Magdeburg
Chemnitz
Zwickau
Brunswick
Stassfurt
Oschersleben
Index
No.
51
49
48
47
46
43
40
38
37
33
28
It will be seen that, as already indicated, there is little difference between
the rent levels of Berlin and Stuttgart. Düsseldorf is the next highest-rented
town, but the rents there are 20 per cent, lower than in Berlin and Stuttgart.
In Dortmund they are 32 per cent, lower than in Berlin, and so the scale
descends to Brunswick, a large town with rents 63 per cent, lower than in
Berlin, and to Stassfurt and Oschersleben, where the rents are respectively only
about one-third and one-quarter of those prevalent in the capital. The index
numbers for eight of the 32 towns lie between 60 and 70, and for 12 towns
between 50 and 60 ; for two towns they are above 70, and in 10 cases below 50.
In the next Table the towns are grouped according to certain geographical
districts, which are indicated on the map given as a frontispiece to this volume.
Two of these groups are very small, appearing to consist of only two towns each ;
but with the North Sea Ports of Hamburg and Bremen the large town of
Altona is included, since it is scarcely separable—from the economic point of
view—-from Hamburg, and the Silesian group is representative, since it
includes Breslau, the second largest city of Prussia, and Königshütte, which, as
already pointed out, is the centre of an extensive district of almost identical
character. The towns in each group are shown in Table A, appended to this
General Report.
Rent Index Numbers for Geographical Groups.
Geographical Group.
Mean Rent Index
N umber.
Berlin
Central Germany
Rhineland-Westphalia :—
(a) Textile Towns
(b) Hardware Towns
South Germany
Saxony
Silesia
Baltic Ports
North Sea Ports
ISo. of Towns
100
35
55
61
65
47
52
52
59
