378
MUNICH.
The grocers’ shops of the town partake more of the all-round character
common to North Germany, but not to Nuremberg ; cheese and eggs are not
necessarily consigned to special dealers, and bread may be bought elsewhere
than at the baker’s. It should be added, however, that grocers’ bread is not as
a rule bread baked in Munich, but is country bread, of the usual rye sort, which
competes at lower rates with the local bread. As to the latter there is no
recognised weight or price, and a baker may make loaves as large or as small as
he likes, always provided that the weight is duly certified. The first quality
brown or black bread is made of nine-tenths rye and one-tenth wheat. The usual
price is 1ft/. per single lb., for it is cut up into single pounds as desired, or (it/,
or 6|t/. per 4-lb. loaf. The price of the second quality rye bread is 1 \d.
per single lb. The largest loaves are sold at 2s., which means a huge log of
bread, measuring nearly a yard in length and 20 inches in circumference, and
weighing 14 or 15 lb. These loaves are mostly sold to working-class
families in which six or eight persons have to be fed at a meal. The local
Guild of Bakers exercises an indirect control over the bread trade of the town,
but it is very slight : every month it collects specimens of the loaves baked
from every part of the town, and the weights and prices are published in its
periodical. The bakers complain, however, that while the countiy bread is
allowed to come into the town free of octroi, they have to pay this local tax on
all the flour they use in the way of trade.
Together with butter, which costs from Is. Id. to Is. 2\d. per lb., the
working classes buy a good deal of " butter schmalz,” that is, butter which has
been melted down so that it keeps a longer time ; the cost is about the same.
Pork dripping at !}¿d. and margarine at 7§d. are also largely used. The price
of milk in 1905 was 2ft/. per quart.
A further notable fact in the dieting of Munich is the remarkable diminution
in the consumption of beer. T wenty years ago the consumption amounted to
500 litres, equal to 109*4 gallons per head of the entire population. In 1905 the
consumption was only 296 litres or 64*8 gallons, a falling off of 41 per cent.
Not only so, but this decrease is no spasmodic or accidental fact ; it has been
going on year by year, almost without break, ever since the maximum figure
just named occurred, until in 1905 it happened that Munich for the first time
exported more beer of its own production than it consumed. How far this
declining use of beer is the result of economic conditions, and the extent to
which it characterises one class of the people more than another, are questions
to which it is impossible to give conclusive answers. It is, however, generally
admitted—and both brewers and licensed victuallers are ready to attest the fact
—that the anti-alcohol movement has been a strong contributory cause.
Predominant Prices paid by the Working Classes in October, 1905, and June, 1906.
Commodity.
Predominant Price.
October, 1905.
June, 1906.
Coffee ...
Sugar :—
Loaf
White Granulated
Bacon :—
Fat
Streaky
Eggs
Cheese :—
Limburg
Swiss
Butter ...
Margarine
Potatoes
Flour (Household)
Bread ...
Milk
Coal
Coke ... •••
Paraffin Oil
per lb.
per Is.
per lb.
))
))
per 7 lb.
per 4 lb.
per quart,
per cwt.
per gallon.
11 d. to Is. Id
2\d., 21d.
2#
8|d. to 9§d
8f d. to 9|d.
14
5W.
lid to Is. Id
Is. Id to Is. 2id.
7 id.
2\d. to 3d
Is. 3¡d
bid
2#d
Is. 2
Is
11
lid to Is. Id
2 \d.
8|d to 9|d
8|d to 9fd
17
5\d.
lid to Is. Id
Is. Id to Is. 24d
7|d
2jd to 3d
Is. 31d
6&d
2#d
Is. 2|d
Is. 64d
lid
