I ¿ 
xliv 
Cost of the average British Working-man’s Budget (excluding Tea and Coffee) at 
the predominant prices paid by the Working Classes of (1) England and 
Wales, (2) Germany, in October, 1905. 
2. 
Commodity, 
Quantity 
in average 
British 
Budget. 
Predominant Prices at October, 1905, in 
England and Wales. 
Germany. 
Cost in Pence 
of quantity in 
Col. 2 in 
England 
and 
Wales. 
Germany, 
Sugar 
Bacon 
Cheese 
Butter 
Potatoes 
Flour (wheaten) 
Bread (wheaten, in 
England). 
Equivalent wheaten 
flour in Germany, 
Milk ... 
Beef ... 
Pork ... 
Mutton 
Coal ... 
5^ lb. 
St ;; 
2 » 
17 „ 
10 „ 
22 „ 
22 „ 
5 qts. 
U lb. 
01 „ 
4 „ 
2 cwt. 
2d. per lb. 
7d. to 9d. per lb. 
Id. per lb. 
Is. 1 \d. per lb. 
2\d. to 3^(7. per 7 lb. 
8(7. to 10d. „ 
4\d. to 5\d. per 4 lb. 
3d. to Ad. per qt. 
6f(7. per lb. 
l\d. to 8\d. per lb. 
d. per lb. 
9\d. to Is. per cwt. 
Total cost of the 
above... 
Index Number 
2\d., 2\d. per lb. 
8f(7. to 11(7. „ 
5d. ,, G^d. ,, 
Is. Id. to Is. 2§d. per lb. 
2\d. to 3d. per 7 lb. 
ll^e7.to Is. Ifd. „ 
11 \d. to Is. If d. per 7 lb, 
2\d., 2|d. per qt. 
7|d. to 8|d. per lb. 
8# „ lid. „ 
7\d. „ 9\d. „ 
10|(7. to Is. Ad. per cwt. 
124 
185 
100 
39| 
if 1 
5 
13* 
26$ 
2184 
118 
The answer obtained in this way is that the English working man would 
have to spend nearly 219 pence in Germany in order to purchase the same 
goods that he could have bought for 185 pence in England, or in other words 
he would have to increase his expenditure in the ratio of 100 to 118. This 
method of approaching the question has, accordingly, led again to_ practically 
the same conclusion, viz., that prices in Germany may be taken as about 
18 per cent, higher than in England. But the difficulties of the comparison 
are illustrated by the omissions and assumptions made in compiling the 
two budgets used. The Englishman’s tea has been omitted, as he would 
find it simply unobtainable in Germany, at a price which he could pay. 
If he substituted the German’s usual j lb. of coffee at 11 d. for his 
accustomed 0'6 lb. of tea at Is. 6(7., he would save 2\d. Again, as the English 
man could seldom purchase white household bread in Germany, we have 
credited him with the purchase of 22 lbs. of flour, assuming, say, that he would 
bake at home. Actually 22 lbs. of flour are not required for making 22 lbs. of 
bread, but no allowance has been made for the cost of other materials nor of 
baking, and as the predominant cost of bread per lb. "in England (1*25(7.) is 
almost identical with the cost of flour (1*29(7.) the method adopted seems fair. 
If he consumed instead 22 lbs. of German grey bread, in lieu of the wheaten 
bread to which he was accustomed in England, he would save about 8 Ä d. 
a week. If then our English emigrant took to grey bread and coffee in place 
of white bread and tea, his total weekly expenditure would be only about 
12 per cent, more than in England. But that is merely to say that if he lived 
more like the German his expenditure would be less ; and the mode in which 
the above table has been constructed gives the more accurate answer to the 
question as to the expenditure of an English emigrant who retained, as far as 
possible, his English habits and English food. It is proposed, therefore to 
take the figure 118 as representing, for working-class expenditure from ’ the 
English standpoint, the price level in Germany as compared with the price level 
in England.