XXVI

For  Butter  the  extreme  range  of  prices  was  from  Is.  (a  price  which  was
given  as  predominant  only  in  Hamburg-Altona)  to  Is.  3\d.  The  kinds  usually
bought  are  slightly  salted.
For  Potatoes  the  predominant  prices  quoted  per  7  lb.  showed,  as  was  to  be
expected,  a  somewhat  wide  range—from  1  ^d.  in  Stettin  and  Königshütte  to
3in  Brunswick  and  Stassfurt.
For  Bread  it  appeared  desirable  to  use,  for  statistical  purposes,  the  prices
for  the  numerous  kinds  of  "  grey  ”  bread  (z.g.,  a  mixture  of  rye  and  wheat  in
various  proportions),  since  these  were  obtainable  for  all  the  towns  investigated,
whilst  prices  for  black  (rye)  bread  were  procurable  in  only  15  out  of  the
33  towns.  As  there  is  in  Germany  nothing  approaching  to  a  standard  quality
loaf,  and  the  proportions  of  rye  and  wheat  in  grey  bread  vary  considerably,  the
extreme  range  of  prices  in  October,  1905,  was  very  wide,  the  limits  being  4\d.
and  vS^rf.  per  4  lbs.  The  lower  limit  was  quoted  in  Magdeburg,  Brunswick
and  Stassfurt  (all  in  the  Central  Germany  group),  and  in  Flauen,  whilst  the
upper  limit  was  quoted  only  in  Remscheid.  The  predominant  range  (as  shown
in  the  above  table)  was  4jc/.  to
The  price  of  Milk  showed  singularly  little  variation,  the  range  being  only
from  2d.  to  3d.  per  quart.  The  lower  limit  was,  however,  quoted  only  in
Oschersleben,  and  the  upper  limit  of  3d.  only  in  Mannheim  ;  in  all  the  other
towns  the  price  was  2\d.  to  2\d.
The  prices  of  Coal  are  affected  to  a  large  extent  by  the  distance  of  each
town  from  the  coalfields.  The  entire  range  in  October,  1905,  was  from  l\d.  per
cwt.  at  Königshütte,  the  centre  of  the  Silesian  coal  area,  and  &\d.  at  Essen  and
Bochum,  in  the  midst  of  the  Rhineland-Westphalia  coal  district,  to  Is.  H^d.  at
Stuttgart  and  Is.  9¡d.  at  Mülhausen—both  of  these  being  South  German  towns
remote  from  sources  of  supply.  In  the  mining  districts  coal  is  frequently
supplied  cheaply  at  the  pits  to  the  miners,  or  even  free  (as  at  Königshütte)  ;
elsewhere  briquettes  are  largely  used  by  the  working  classes  (for  instance,  at
Berlin,  Aachen,  Düsseldorf,  Leipzig  and  Brunswick)  for  heating  purposes  ;  as
is  also  lignite  (brown  coal),  often  in  the  form  of  little  more  than  coal-dust,  for
cooking  purposes.
The  Meat  consumed  in  Germany  is  almost  entirely  home-killed  meat.  The
variations  in  price  between  the  towns  are  not  very  great,  ranging  as  expressed
in  index  numbers  (Berlin  =  100)  from  94  to  116,  the  differences  between  one
town  and  another  being  due  probably  both  to  differences  in  the  actual  prices  for
identical  commodities  and  to  varieties  of  taste  and  habit.  From  the  Tables  in
Appendix  III  (pp.  499,  500),  it  will  be  seen  that  as  a  rule  there  are  for  each  kind
of  meat  no  differences  in  price,  except  for  the  very  best  cuts  (such  as  beef  steak
and  mutton  or  pork  chops),  between  one  cut  and  another.  This  is  due  to  the
fact  that  in  most  of  the  towns  neither  the  butchers'  nor  their  customers  distinguish, ­
  either  in  quoting  prices  or  in  cutting  up  the  meat,  between  the  various
parts  except,  as  already  indicated,  in  the  case  of  certain  special  cuts  which  are
not  bought  to  any  large  extent  by  the  working  classes.  The  meat  is  generally
sold  entirely  w  ithout  bone,  or  with  only  a  small,  proportion  of  bone.  It  may
be  added  that  in  most  of  the  German  towns,  where  as  a  rule  the  inspection  of
the  meat  supply  is  very  stringent,  there  is  an  institution  known  as  the
“  Freibank,”  practically  a  municipal  meat  stall  or  shop,  where  the  flesh  of
animals  which  has  fallen  short  of  the  standard  of  soundness  imposed  by  the
municipal  inspectors  is  sold  at  a  low  price  after  being  subjected,  if  necessary,  to
treatment  (usually  boiling)  intended  to  render  it  safe  for  human  consumption.
This  institution  is  found,  for  example,  at  Berlin,  Breslau,  Munich,  Leipzig,
Chemnitz,  Königsberg,  Mülhausen,  Brunswick  and  Zwickau.  Though  of  some
importance  to  the  very  poor,  the  amount  thus  sold  at  the  "  Freibank  ”  in  any
town  is  very  small  relatively  to  the  total  consumption  of  meat.
In  order  to  obtain  for  each  town  an  indication  of  the  level  of  prices  there  as
compared  with  other  towns,  index  numbers  have  been  constructed,  the  level  of