xlv
On the other hand the average German working man coming to
England would not find his expenditure on food, &c., reduced in anything like
so high a ratio as 118 :100 if he retained his accustomed habits. For he
purchases, to take only two items that affect the question, 26 lbs. of potatoes
against the Englishman’s 17 lbs. and 6J quarts of milk against the Englishman’s
5 quarts, and both potatoes and milk are dearer in this country than in
Germany. Using in fact the approximate quantities of the average German
budget, as employed for the comparison of the price levels in German towns,
we obtain the figures of the Table below :—
Cost of the average German Working-man's Budget (excluding Tea and Coffee)
at the Predominant Prices paid hy the Working Classes of (1) England
and Wales, (2) Germany, in October, 1905.
Commodity.
Quantity
in average
German
Budget.
Sugar
Bacon
Cheese
Butter
Potatoes
Flour (wheaten)
Bread (wheaten in
England).
Bread (wheat and
rye in Germany)
Milk
Beef
Pork
Coal
Total cost of the
above ...
i
Index number ...
2 lb.
¿ :
25 „
6# qts.
2* lb.
H »
14 cwt.
Predominant Prices at October, 1905, in
England and Wales.
2d. per lb.
Id. to 9r?. per lb.
7d. per lb.
Is. 1 \d. per lb.
2\d. to B\d. per 7 lb.
Sd. to 10c?. „
4#¿?. to 5#í?. per 4 lb
3d. to 4d. per qt.
j6#d. per lb.
7\d. to 8^c?. per lb.
9\d. to Is. per cwt.
Germany.
24c?., 2\d. per lb.
8|d to 11c?. „
5c?. to 6#t?. „
Is. lc?. to Is. 2|c?. „
21c?. to 3c?. per 7 lb.
ll#i?.tols.lM „
4|c?. to 6#é?. per 4 lb.
2&C?., 2#c?. per qt.
7fc?. to 8fc?. per lb.
81c?. to lie?. „
lOf c?. to Is. 4c?. per cwt.
Cost in pence
of quantity in
Col. 2 in
England
and
Wales.
22#
14#
12#
16
141#
100
Germany
;
■a
35#
17
3
20
152
108
The average German emigrant to England would accordingly only decrease
his expenditure in approximately the ratio of 108 :100. In this comparison,
as in the preceding, tea and coffee are excluded. If we exclude bread as well,
on the ground that the qualities are not the same in the two countries, bread
being an item on which the German’s expenditure would be decreased by over
10 per cent, in spite of his substitution of white bread for grey, the ratio for the
remaining commodities is only 106 :100. The Englishman, however, is
hardly much concerned with this aspect of the matter. For him the rise in
expenditure on food, &c., would be about 18 per cent, if he should go to
Germany, in so far as he could purchase the same commodities at all.
Before concluding this section on the comparative prices of England and
Germany, it should be pointed out that the average working-class budgets of
the two Reports, while sufficient for the purposes for which they were used, do
not form a satisfactory basis for comparison of the prices paid, apart altogether
from the relative unreliability of the data as compared with prices obtained
directly from dealers doing a large working-class trade. In the first place the
budgets were not collected at the same period in the two countries. The
British budgets were collected during the years 1903-04, the German during
the years 1906-07. Further, while the German budgets were drawn from all
the towns of the present investigation, and from no others, the British budgets
collected at an earlier date did not cover nearly so extensive a field as the
subsequent inquiry into the conditions of the working classes in industrial
towns.
