Predominant Bétail Prices in England and Wales and Germany, in 
October, 1905. 
Commodities. 
Sugar, white 
Butter 
Potatoes ... 
Flour, wheaten 
Milk 
Beef 
Mutton 
Pork 
Bacon 
Coal 
Paraffin oil 
granulated per lb. 
... per 7 lb. 
... per qt. 
... per lb. 
per cwt. 
per gal. 
Predominant Prices in October, 1905. 
England and 
W ales. 
2d. 
Is. lid.* 
2\d. to 3\d. 
8d. 
3d. 
7 id. 
Ed. 
(7#. 
1 4d. 
lOd. 
4d. 
8&d.f 
6d.$ 
9d.t 
5d.j 
7Id. to 81d. 
Id. 
91d. 
Id. 
9d. 
Is. 
8d. 
Germany. 
2|d., 2\d. 
Is. Id. to Is. 2fd. 
2^d. „ 3d. 
ll^d. „ Is. l|d. 
2#, 2# 
I 7|d. to 8fd. 
7|d. 
8|d. 
8#d. 
10%d. 
91d. 
9id. 
lid. 
lid. 
Is. Id. 
lid. 
Ratio of Mean 
Predominant Price in 
Germany to Mean 
Predominant Price in 
England, taken as 100. 
119 
105 
88 
140 
75 
122 
137 
123 
123 
124 
135 
* Mean of Colonial or Foreign and Danish, 
t British or home-killed. 
X Foreign or Colonial. 
The predominant prices for England are cited from p. xxiii of the Report 
on the Enquiry into Prices, &c., in the Towns of the United Kingdom. As 
about 40 per cent, of all meat consumed in the British Isles is Foreign or 
Colonial, and the percentage of foreign meat for working-class consumption is 
certainly higher, it has been thought sufficient to take the average of the 
predominant prices of the two classes of meat in each case for comparison 
with the German figures. The price of " Foreign ” or Colonial butter has 
been similarly combined with that of Danish. The German prices are cited 
from the Table on p. above, It will be seen from the index numbers, 
or ratios of German prices to English, in the last column that the prices 
paid by the German working classes in October, 1905, were, in most cases, 
from 20 to 40 per cent, higher than the prices paid by the English 
working classes at the same period. But there were two very striking 
exceptions, viz., the prices paid for milk and for potatoes. For milk the 
German price was only 2\d. to 2Jd. a quart, as against 3d. to 4d. in England, a 
difference amounting to 25 per cent, of the English price. In the case of 
potatoes the predominant prices in Germany ranged from 2\d. to 3d. per 7 lbs., 
in England from 2^d. to 3\d. The difference is over 12 per cent, of the 
English price. Of the remaining commodities, butter was about 5 per cent, 
dearer in Germany, beef, pork, bacon and coal from 20 to 25 per cent, dearer, 
mutton, wheaten flour, and paraffin oil oo to 40 per cent, dearer. If we take 
the arithmetic mean of the above numbers' as a rough index to the relative 
price levels of the two countries, for commodities common to both, it is 117 for 
Germany, as compared with 100 in England. 
It does not follow, however, that this ratio fairly represents the relative 
prices paid in the two countries for the necessaries of existence. In the Report 
on the United Kingdom, the price levels of different towns were compared by the 
amount required to purchase the groceries, meat and coal in an approximate 
average working-man’s budget. It seems fair to apply the same principle to 
the present case, and to ask, if the average British working-man went to live in 
Germany, and tried to live there as nearly as possible in the same way as he 
had previously lived in England, purchasing the same food in the same 
quantities, how much more would he have to pay ? An attempt has been 
made to answer this question in the following comparative budgets 
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