REMSCHEID. 
425 
Since October, 1905, there has been a general rise of prices. Explaining 
the reason for the higher cost of many articles of food during the financial 
year 1906—7, the " Concord ” Co-operative Society states that it was not able 
to buy as favourably as before, and it illustrates this by the following amongst 
other examples :— 
Increase in the Wholesale Prices of Foodstuffs. 
Price per cwt. 
1 y 04. 
1906. 
Increase per cent. 
Hice ,,, » 
Roasted barley 
Margarine 
Palmin (artificial butter) 
Coffee ... , ••• 
Cheese—Swiss 
„ Dutch 
Lard . » » ••• 
Butter oil 
Cooking oil 
17s. 
10s. M. 
59 s. 
48s. 
75s. 
78s. 
55s. 
42s. 
47s. 3c?. 
53s. 
19s. 
lis. 9c?. 
60s. 
52s. 
82s. 
90s. 
64s. 
52s. 
77s. 6c?. 
80s. 
11:8 
119 
1*7 
83 
93 
154 
16 3 
23 8 
640 
510 
Further, flour had advanced 11 per cent, and bread 14 per cent., while coal 
had increased from 8s. per ton in 1893 to 10s. Qd. in 1903 and 12s. Id. in 1906. 
It adds : “ The foregoing figures clearly prove the accuracy of our contention 
that the cost of living has been increased to the working classes by at least 
15 per cent.” . v 
Meat. 
Beef and pork are the kinds of meat chiefly eaten by the working classes 
of Remscheid. There is, however, a considerable consumption of horseflesh, 
which is sold in several shops exclusively devoted to this trade, and here as in 
Solingen preference rather than straitened means would seem to explain the 
repute which this meat enjoys. The beef comes chiefly from Denmark, 
Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, and East Prussia, but the best from South 
Germany; the pork comes from Westphalia, Mecklenburg, and Schleswig- 
Holstein ; the small amount of mutton eaten comes from Mecklenburg and 
Schleswig-Holstein ; and the veal is of local origin. 
The consumption of meat in working-class households and the extent to 
which beef and pork, with sausage, which is made chiefly of the latter, pre 
ponderate, is shown by returns obtained from 146 families, representing 
713 persons, as to the weekly consumption of meat. These showed a weekly 
average of slightly over 24 ounces per person, on at the rate of about 78^ lb. 
per annum. Of this beef constituted ob per cent., poik and bacon 31 per cent., 
and sausage 30 per cent. All other kinds together (including veal and mutton) 
amounted to only 3 per cent. 
The price usually paid for i beef in. October, 1905, was from l\d. to 8Jd. 
per lb., the dearer beefsteak being little bought, while the cuts of pork mostly 
eaten cost from 7|d. to 9¿<i., and the prices of bacon, both fat and streaky, fell 
also within this range. 
3 H 
29088