xlii

There  is,  however,  as  already  mentioned,  a  very  important  difference
between  the  services  obtained  for  the  payment  of  rent  in  England  and  in
Germany.  When  an  English  workman  has  paid  his  rent  he  has  in  nearly  all
cases  not  only  paid  for  the  use  of  the  rooms  that  he  inhabits,  but  also  for  all
the  services  provided  by  the  Local  Authority  out  of  the  rates.  The  landlord,
that  is  to  say,  in  most  cases  pays  the  rates  for  which  the  tenant  would  otherwise ­
  be  directly  liable,  and  recoups  himself  out  of  the  rent  charged.  In  a  few
cases  in  England  and  Wales  where  such  payment  by  the  landlord  is  not  in  force
an  amount  equivalent  to  the  rates  was  added  by  the  investigator  to  the  rent
paid  by  the  tenant,  so  that  the  rents  stated  in  the  Report  on  the  United
Kingdom  in  all  cases  include,  or  cover,  the  payment  of  rates.  But  in  Germany
local  taxation  is  paid  by  means  of  an  addition  to  the  State  income  tax,  and,
consequently,  the  workman  who  has  paid  his  rent  has  nevertheless  still  to  pay
taxes.  The  rents  of  the  two  countries  may  be  rendered  strictly  comparable  as
regards  the  services  covered  by  the  rent  paid  only  by  deducting  from  the
English  rent  a  proportion  equivalent  to  that  paid  on  account  of  local  rates  (so  as
to  exclude  local  taxation  on  both  sides  of  the  account),  or  by  adding  to  the
German  rent  a  proportion  equivalent  to  the  average  income  tax  paid  by  a  workman ­
  inhabiting  a  tenement  of  each  given  size  (so  as  to  include  local  taxation  on
both  sides).  The  latter  process,  however,  offers  such  great  difficulties  that  the
attempt  to  form  any  such  estimate  has  had  for  the  present  to  be  abandoned.
Even  as  regards  the  first  process,  there  are  unfortunately  no  official  statistics
which  enable  the  exact  relation  of  local  rates  to  rents  in  England  to  be  determined.
Accordingly,  with  a  view  to  making  some  estimate  as  to  the  amount  of  rates
paid  by  the  working  classes  in  the  towns  investigated,  the  Local  Authority  of
each  town  on  which  a  report  had  been  made,  was  asked  to  state,  if  possible,
the  total  rates  paid  during  the  year  1905  on  typical  working-class  tenements
of  the  predominant  rents  given  in  the  report  on  their  town.  From  replies
received  from  50  towns  it  is  possible  to  estimate  that  local  rates  form  in  most
cases  from  20  to  26  per  cent,  of  the  total  rent  paid  by  the  tenant,  or  an  average
of  about  23  per  cent.  In  a  number  of  towns,  however,  this  includes  the  rate
for  water,  which  is  frequently,  though  not  always,  a  municipal  service  ;  and
this  particular  service  is  also  generally  included  in  the  rent  in  German  towns.
The  amount  of  the  water  rate  has  not  always  been  distinguished  in  the  replies
received,  but  in  those  cases  in  which  information  is  given  the  water  rate
amounts  usually  to  about  5  per  cent,  of  the  rent.  As  an  approximate
estimate,  then,  it  appears  that  local  rates,  less  the  water  rate,  may  be  taken  as
forming  some  18  per  cent,  of  the  rent  paid  for  working-class  tenements  in  the
industrial  towns  of  England  and  Wales.  If  this  deduction  is  made  from
English  rents,  so  as  to  render  them  more  comparable  with  the  German  figures,
we  find  that  German  rents  (apart  from  local  taxation)  bear  to  English  rents
(apart  from  the  portion  that  has  to  be  allocated  by  the  landlord  to  local
taxation)  the  ratio  of  101  to  82,  or  123  to  100.  In  other  words,  the  workman ­
  in  a  German  town  pays  for  housing  accommodation  about  one-quarter  more
than  the  workman  in  an  English  town,  for  the  same  number  of  rooms,  exclusive
in  both  cases  of  local  taxation.

(ii.)  Prices  and  Budgets.
Prices.—The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  any  complete  comparison  of  the
relative  prices  ruling  for  similar  commodities  in  England  and  in  Germany,  so
far  as  they  affect  the  expenditure  of  the  working  classes  of  the  two  countries  are
sufficiently  obvious  from  what  has  been  said  above  as  to  the  differences  between
the  budgets.  The  German  drinks  coffee,  not  tea  ;  he  eats  grey  bread  not
white  ;  he  consumes  practically  no  mutton  and  a  good  deal  of  pork.  Further
than  this  it  must  be  remembered  that  some  commodities  which  are  nominally
.  the  same  are  yet  not  in  all  cases  strictly  comparable.  Thus  German  meat  is  in
general  sold  without  bone  and  without  fat,  as  mentioned  above,  while  bacon  is
chiefly  sold  as  pure  fat  for  cooking  purposes,  &c.,  and  the  typical  German
Limburg  cheese  is  unknown  in  England.  Neglecting,  however,  such  minor
differences,  the  predominant  prices  paid  by  the  working  classes  of  the  two
countries  for  commodities  quoted  in  both  were  as  follows  :—