XXVll 
prices in Berlin being taken as the base (= 100). In order to allow lor the 
varying importance of the prices of the different articles, as judged by the normal 
weekly expenditure of a working-class family, recourse was had to “ weighting,” 
and for this purpose average quantities estimated from the Budgets 
shown on p. xx, have been adopted, but “bread and hour” have been 
divided into 25 lbs. of bread and 2 lbs. of flour (the remaining ¿ lb. being 
omitted as representing probably various kinds of fancy bread and pastry). 
For meat only beef and pork have been included, with weights of 2} lbs. and 
If lbs. respectively. No information as to the average coal consumption per 
family per week was given in the budgets, but from independent enquiries it 
appears that an estimate of 1^ cwt. may be taken as approximately correct. 
The following, therefore, are the quantities of the selected commodities assumed, 
on the basis of 5,046 weekly budgets, to be consumed by a German working- 
class family in a normal week :— 
Coffee ... ... ... 
Sugar (white granulated) 
Bacon 
Cheese 
Butter 
Eggs 
Potatoes 
fib. 
2 lbs. 
f lb- 
¿lb. 
If lbs. 
10 
26 lbs. 
Flour (wheaten) 
Bread... 
Milk ... 
Beef ... 
Pork ... 
Coal ... 
2 lbs. 
25 lbs. 
6& qts. 
2Í lbs. 
If lbs. 
1 Jr cwt. 
The predominant prices in each town as ascertained for the various articles 
are weighted in accordance with the above quantities, the total expenditure so 
obtained being expressed as a percentage of the corresponding total as compiled 
for Berlin ; the results are shown in the following Table :—- 
Prices Index Numbers in Descending Order. 
Berlin = 100. 
Town. 
Index 
No. 
Town. 
Index 
No. 
Town. 
Index 
No. 
Barmen 
Mannheim 
Mülhausen 
Stuttgart 
Munich 
Nuremberg 
Remscheid 
Bremen 
Chemnitz 
Dresden 
Aachen 
110 
109 
109 
108 
107 
107 
105 
105 
1(>5 
103 
103 
Düsseldorf 
Elberfeld 
Plauen 
Königsberg 
Brunswick 
Solingen 
Aschaffenburg 
Leipzig 
Crefeld 
Berlin 
Stettin 
102 I Essen 
102 
102 
101 
101 
101 
101 
101 
Zwickau 
Oschersleben 
Stassf urt 
Magdeburg ... 
Hamburg-Altona 
Dantzig 
Bochum 
100 i Dortmund 
100 
99 
Breslau 
Königshütte... 
99 
98 
98 
98 
97 
97 
97 
96 
96 
95 
86 
There are thus no less than 20 out of the 33 towns which have a prices 
index number higher than Berlin. The total difference between the highest 
and lowest towns is 24 points, as compared with 72 points in the case of rents ; 
if, however, Königshütte (whose index number for prices is very low) be 
excluded, the maximum difference in price levels is only 15 points. It will be 
observed that five out of the six towns at the head of the list are situated in 
South Germany. The following Table shows the prices index numbers for 
each of the geographical groups for which rent index numbers have already 
d 2 
29088