CwmMW Æmfg and Pr/cgg m Dggc6/%&^ G/'^r. 
Town. 
Stuttgart 
Mannheim 
Berlin 
Barmen 
Munich 
Düsseldorf 
Mülhausen 
Nuremberg 
Remscheid 
Bremen 
Aschaffenburg 
Index 
No. 
Town. 
106 
100 
100 
99 
98 
97 
97 
96 
95 
94 
94 
Dresden 
Königsberg 
Aachen 
Elberfeld 
Solingen 
Chemnitz 
Planen 
Essen 
Leipzig 
Hamburg-Altona 
Crefeld 
Index 
No. 
Town. 
93 
93 
93 
93 
93 
92 
92 
92 
91 
91 
90 
Dortmund 
Stettin 
Brunswick 
Bochum 
Dantzig 
Breslau 
Magdeburg 
Zwickau 
Stassfurt 
Oschersleben 
Königshütte. 
Index 
No. 
90 
88 
88 
88 
87 
87 
86 
86 
85 
84 
78 
Stuttgart heads the list, under the combined influence of high rents and 
high prices, whilst the position of Mannheim is due mainly to high prices, and 
that of Berlin to high rents. The place of Königshütte at the bottom of the 
list is due to the very low level of prices ruling there, whilst for the three towns 
immediately above it the determining factor is low rents. The extreme range 
for the 33 towns is from 106 to 78—a difference of 28 points, but if we exclude 
Stuttgart and Königshütte the extreme difference is only 16 points, and 20 of 
the towns, or nearly two-thirds, lie within the narrow range of 96 to 88. 
Thus there does not appear to be a very marked difference between the towns 
in respect of that part of the cost of living which is represented by the 
expenditure on food, fuel, and housing. In the following Table the combined 
rents and prices index numbers are given for the geographical groups of 
towns. 
Combined Bents and Prices Index Numbers for Geographical Groups. 
Geographical Group. 
Number of 
Towns. 
Mean Index Numbers. 
Rent. 
Prices. 
Rent and 
Prices 
Combined. 
Berlin 
Central Germany 
Rhineland Westphalia :— 
(a) Textile Towns 
lb) Hardware Towns 
South Germany 
Saxony 
Silesia 
Baltic Ports 
North Sea Ports 
100 
35 
55 
64 
65 
47 
52 
52 
59 
100 
99 
104 
100 
107 
102 
91 
99 
101 
100 
86 
94 
93 
99 
91 
83 
89 
93 
Thus when rents and prices are combined, South Germany, with a relatively 
high level of both prices and rents, comes next after Berlin, and very close to 
it.° The Silesian group of towns is lowest, owing to medium rents and low 
prices ; the low level of Central Germany is due solely to the influence of 
low rents. 
(iv.) Wages and Hours of Labour. 
From a large number of returns made for the purposes of this investigation 
by German employers, and from other sources, much information was obtained 
as to wa<?es and hours of labour in many branches of industry, and this is set out 
in the separate town reports, and to some extent also in a subsequent section of this 
General Report (pp.xxxv,xxxvi), and in Appendix L, pp. 492-495. Ina number 
of cases it was possible to obtain “ standard rates,” i.e., rates fixed for a definite 
period by agreement between employers and employed. Such agreements exist 
for the printing trade throughout Germany—in this case there is a minimum 
rate, with an addition which varies from town to town according to an estimate 
of the local cost of living ; for brewing there are local or special agreements 
(i.e., agreements made for the whole district or between individual firms 
and their employees) in all the towns in which that industry is carried on to 
any considerable extent ; and there are local agreements for some branches of 
the building trade in nearly all the towns investigated. In all these cases the 
agreements are as to time rates. There are numerous and complicated piecework