DRESDEN.
20%
Butter is one of the most important items of diet in the working-class
family budget in Dresden and throughout Saxony generally. An analysis of
the household expenditure of 25 working-class families in Dresden for a whole
year* showed that from 14 to 18 per cent, of the total food hill is spent on
butter alone, z.<?., about the same proportion as is spent on meat. Margarine is
also very largely eaten by working-class families. It is one of the very few
articles of food of which the price has declined in Dresden in recent years.
Bread.—The bread most generally eaten by all classes is composed entirely
of rye or of rye mixed with a small proportion of wheat or of wheat and maize.
The bulk of the supply comes from two or three large steam bakeries, one of
them being that of the Co-operative Association “ Vorwärts,” already alluded
to. Three grades are distinguished, the most usual prices of which at October,
1905, were 5|d., 5^., and 4\d. per 4 lbs. respectively. Loaves are usually of the
reputed weight of either one kilog. or two, i.e., 2*2 or 4*4 lbs. avoirdupois, but
bakers are free to increase or reduce the weight according to the price of hour.
Coal.—The ascertainment of retail coal prices is somewhat complicated by
the fact that coal is sold either by the hectolitre, a measure of capacity, or by
the centner, which roughly corresponds to our hundredweight, or to be precise,
110*2 lbs. The weight of the coal contained in a hectolitre measure varies
considerably. What the working classes consume consists most frequently of a
mixture of equal parts of coal (obtained from the State mines close outside
Dresden) and lignite imported from Bohemia. The former, purchased retail,
costs 160pf. per hectolitre weighing about 140 (German) lbs. ; the latter, 140pf.
per hectolitre of about 136 (German) lbs. The mixture is sold at 160pf. per
hectolitre, which should represent 147 (German) lbs. This is equivalent to
about Is. Id. per cwt.
Meat.
A great rise in the price of meat has taken place in Dresden, as in all other
parts of Germany, during the last decade. Except for a comparatively short
period the statistics of retail prices published in the Monthly Statistical Bulletin
of the Municipality are not available for measuring the extent of that rise,
owing to a change made in 1903 in the method of collecting the prices of beef,
mutton, pork and bacon, but for this purpose recourse may be had to the
returns of wholesale prices published by the Statistical Office. These are
available for each of the years 1898-1905, and are shown in the following
table :—
Average Price per Civt. of Dead Meat in Dresden.
Beef—
Oxen—
1st Quality
S:
Bulls—
1st Quality
0 Sf
1st Quality
2nd „
3rd „
4th „
5th
Pork—
I st Quality
2nd „
1898.
X. d.
65 7
61 2
56 5
52 2
61 0
56 8
51 10
61 8
57 4
53 0
49 0
44 11
61 11
59 4
1899.
s. d.
64 9
60 7
56 9
52 8
61 8
57 9
61 11
58 0
54 0
49 8
45 11
53 8
51 7
1900. I 1901.
s. d.
64 11
61 0
57 3
52 9
60 10
56 8
52 3
62 3
58 10
55 3
51 4
47 11
53 7
51 1
s. d.
65 2
60 9
57 1
53 1
59 9
55 7
51 3
62 11
59 3
55 5
51 5
47 0
61 0
58 7
1902.
66 1
61 1
56 9
51 9
62 5
57 9
53 2
63 4
58 11
55 0
51 1
46 7
63 10
61 6
1903.
s. d.
69 9
65 7
60 5
52 10
65
60
55
65 5
61 2
56 8
52 3
48 5
56 2
53 9
1904.
s. d.
70 1
65 10
61 0
53 2
65 9
60 7
54 11
65 4
60 11
56 5
52 1
49 4
55 8
53 6
1905.
s. d.
76 0
71 8
67 5
61 7
73 7
69 3
64 0
72
67
63
58
53 11
70 8
68 2
Percentage
increase in
the 7 years.
15 9
17-2
19 5
18 1
20-6
22 2
24 5
17- 2
18- 2
19-0
19- 7
20- 0
141
14-9
price hal been ^in
* Mitteilungen der Statistischen Amtes der Stadt Dresden. 16 Heft. pp. 87-88.
Dresden, 1907.
29088
