LEIPZIG. 
313 
A rough calculation based on these figures shows that beef has risen about 
21 per cent., and pork—the staple flesh food of the people—from 17 to 20 per 
cent., in price in the nine years covered by the Table. It will be seen that the 
rise in price since 1904 has been remarkable. 
The estimates as to the consumption of meat in Leipzig in each of the years 
1902-1905, based on the municipal slaughter-house returns, are as follows 
Pork 
Beef 
... ... ... ,, 
Mutton 
Meat preparations imported 
Total 
1902. 
lbs. 
593 
49-2 
16T 
7-8 
5 5* 
137-9 
Per capita Consumption. 
1903. 
1901. 
lbs. 
693 
44 9 
15-1 
7-4 
5-5* 
142-2 
lbs. 
77-7 
47-8 
17-0 
6-8 
55* 
154-7 
1905. 
lbs. 
683 
46-2 
15-9 
7-3 
5-5* 
143-2 
* According to an official estimate. 
It would appear, therefore, that to every 100 lbs. of meat consumed in 
1902 there were consumed 103T lbs. in 1903, 112 2 lbs. in 1904, and 103*8 lbs. 
in 1905. It will be noticed that the increased consumption between 1902 and 
1904 is entirely due to pork, of which the best quality fell 17 and the second 
quality 19 per cent, in price in those two years. Similarly, the greater part 
of the decline in meat consumption in 1905, as compared with the previous 
year, was due to pork, of which the price has risen by 27 per cent, for the first 
and by 30 per cent, for the second quality. 
The per capita consumption of meat as stated above falls somewhat short 
of the actual consumption, for no account has been taken of poultry and 
game, of which the consumption must be considerable, if one may judge by the 
quantities exhibited for sale in the shops and at the market. Horseflesh 
has also been omitted from this calculation, and it is worthy of note in 
connection with the great rise in meat prices in 1905 that the consumption of 
horseflesh in Leipzig in that year amounted to 817 tons, or 247 tons more than 
the year before. The sale of this kind of meat in Leipzig is confined to six 
shops where no other kinds of meat may be sold. 
It may be assumed that the reduction of meat consumption which has been 
seen to have accompanied a rise in the price of meat is for the most part effected 
among the working-class portion of the population, who undoubtedly eat a much 
smaller quantity of meat per head than that shown to be consumed by the 
population as a whole. Returns furnished for the purpose of the present 
inquiry by 197 typical working-class families in Leipzig with various grades 
of income showed an average weekly consumption per head of a little over 
21^ ounces a week, which would be equal to approximately 70 lbs. a year. 
Of this amount 32 per cent, was beef, 29 per cent, sausage (mainly pork), and 
22 per cent, pork and bacon. 
The predominant retail prices of various cuts of meat in Leipzig at October, 
1905, and September, 1906, are shown in the subjoined table based upon data 
obtained at 18 butchers’ shops in different parts of the town, including nine 
such shops owned by the principal workmen’s co-operative society. 
2 R 
29088