LEIPZIG.
313
A rough calculation based on these figures shows that beef has risen about
21 per cent., and pork—the staple flesh food of the people—from 17 to 20 per
cent., in price in the nine years covered by the Table. It will be seen that the
rise in price since 1904 has been remarkable.
The estimates as to the consumption of meat in Leipzig in each of the years
1902-1905, based on the municipal slaughter-house returns, are as follows
Pork
Beef
... ... ... ,,
Mutton
Meat preparations imported
Total
1902.
lbs.
593
49-2
16T
7-8
5 5*
137-9
Per capita Consumption.
1903.
1901.
lbs.
693
44 9
15-1
7-4
5-5*
142-2
lbs.
77-7
47-8
17-0
6-8
55*
154-7
1905.
lbs.
683
46-2
15-9
7-3
5-5*
143-2
* According to an official estimate.
It would appear, therefore, that to every 100 lbs. of meat consumed in
1902 there were consumed 103T lbs. in 1903, 112 2 lbs. in 1904, and 103*8 lbs.
in 1905. It will be noticed that the increased consumption between 1902 and
1904 is entirely due to pork, of which the best quality fell 17 and the second
quality 19 per cent, in price in those two years. Similarly, the greater part
of the decline in meat consumption in 1905, as compared with the previous
year, was due to pork, of which the price has risen by 27 per cent, for the first
and by 30 per cent, for the second quality.
The per capita consumption of meat as stated above falls somewhat short
of the actual consumption, for no account has been taken of poultry and
game, of which the consumption must be considerable, if one may judge by the
quantities exhibited for sale in the shops and at the market. Horseflesh
has also been omitted from this calculation, and it is worthy of note in
connection with the great rise in meat prices in 1905 that the consumption of
horseflesh in Leipzig in that year amounted to 817 tons, or 247 tons more than
the year before. The sale of this kind of meat in Leipzig is confined to six
shops where no other kinds of meat may be sold.
It may be assumed that the reduction of meat consumption which has been
seen to have accompanied a rise in the price of meat is for the most part effected
among the working-class portion of the population, who undoubtedly eat a much
smaller quantity of meat per head than that shown to be consumed by the
population as a whole. Returns furnished for the purpose of the present
inquiry by 197 typical working-class families in Leipzig with various grades
of income showed an average weekly consumption per head of a little over
21^ ounces a week, which would be equal to approximately 70 lbs. a year.
Of this amount 32 per cent, was beef, 29 per cent, sausage (mainly pork), and
22 per cent, pork and bacon.
The predominant retail prices of various cuts of meat in Leipzig at October,
1905, and September, 1906, are shown in the subjoined table based upon data
obtained at 18 butchers’ shops in different parts of the town, including nine
such shops owned by the principal workmen’s co-operative society.
2 R
29088
