KÖNIGSHÜTTE.

299
In  the  reports  on  most  of  the  other  towns  investigated,  it  has  been  possible
to  compare  the  average  meat  consumption  per  head  of  the  working-class
population  with  that  of  the  whole  population  of  the  town,  and  it  has  generally
appeared  that  among  the  former  only  about  half  as  much  meat  was  eaten  as  among
the  latter.  This  comparison  cannot  be  made  for  Königshütte  owing  to  the
incompleteness  of  the  data  as  to  net  imports  of  dead  meat  for  local  consumption.
If  the  comparison  were  possible  it  would  probably  show  the  two  figures  to  be
practically  identical,  for  almost  the  whole  of  the  population  of  the  town  is
working-class.
Prices,  like  rent  and  wages,  are  very  low  in  Königshütte,  the  general  level
of  prices  of  meat,  of  other  food  and  of  coal  being  lower  than  in  any  other  of  the
towns  investigated.  Taking  prices  in  Berlin  as  100,  the  index  number  for  the
prices  of  meat  in  Königshütte  is  94  ;  for  other  food,  90  ;  for  coal,  51  ;  and  for
all  commodities,  86,  as  compared  with  95  in  Breslau,  the  town  having  the  next
lowest  index  numbers.  Combining  this  index  number  with  that  for  rent,  a
result  of  78  is  obtained,  which  would  indicate  that  the  cost  of  living  in
Königshütte  is  very  much  lower  than  in  any  other  towns  included  in  the
present  inquiry.

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