DRESDEN. Report, by Consul Wilson, on (1) rates of wages; (2) cost of living; (3) present state of trade; (4) coin and paper money of Germany; (5) business habits and systems; for the district of Dresden, in Saxony. I have the honor, in reply to circular dispatch from State Department of April 11 ultimo, to report as follows: My seeming delay has been occasioned by my inability to obtain sooner from the Royal Saxon Government answers to several interrogatories I was unable to gather elsewhere. The courtesies of the Government in all its departments I wish to acknowledge in this, as in all other instances. Where I have had occasion to ask information, it has been accorded with dispatch and politeness, evidencing the good-will entertained for the United States. 1. RATES OF WAGES. The rates of wages usually paid to the laborer of every class will be found in Table A, with the percentage of unemployed. This consular district, from various causes, can scarcely be taken as an index of the agricultural districts of Saxony, containing the capital, Dresden, and the numberless villages clustering around for miles in every direction. The lands are attached to the old castles of their ancient nobility, while all that could be purchased in the past have been beautifully improved and built upon by people from all parts of Europe, to be near the fashion and art of this elegant capital. The laborers are really part and parcel of the estate. Wages in money are often merely nominal, and no index to such wages as are usual and general to the agricultural districts of Saxony. On the lands of the chateaus and country seats of people above alluded to the prices of labor are fancy, according to their proficiency in elegant gardening, or getting such parts or whole of proceeds from the garden farming after furnishing the family table. Where land is let on shares, laborers of the renter are often paid by subshare of the crop, and that varying with fertility of soil and prox imity to market. Very little of this district is agricultural; its great interests centering in the extensive Government forests, coal and silver mines. I might in general terms put the price of ordinary agricultural labor at $4 per month for men and $2.50 for women, plain lodging and simple food included. I subjoin the following extract from report of the Chamber of Commerce of Dresden to the city council: In general, we are able to state that wages in the various industrial branches in the city of Dresden continue to be decidedly adequate to the cost of living, as the recent reduction from the high rates, which five years since rose from 20 to 60 per cent. above those previously paid, has by no means brought them to their former level. 2. COST OF LIVING. The cost of living to the laboring classes almost invariably goes pari passu with their wages. They seem to be generally improvident and regardless of the future, and spend in beer-drinking, dancing, and idleness all they earn. In general terms, I should say the actual cost of living was quite as much as with us for similar food. Our people (in the United States) of all classes, live far better than the people here in Saxony. The wages being so much less than with us, it requires the labor of each one that, is to be provided for, because the wages of the head of a family cannot support a wife and children in idleness. So it is common for every one in a family, so soon as they are old enough, to learn some little art or trade by which he or she may contribute his or her part to the family support. The etages, or flats, in which they live are not unfrequently very unhealthy and uncomfortable, sparsely furnished and very plainly; and in cities, generally in the cellars or immediately next to the roof of the tall houses found here. Their food is mostly of potatoes and black (rye) bread, a coffee made of chicory, gruel or broth, very little meat, and very seldom too. You will find in Table B the cost of the principal articles of food, and in Table C a comparison of the present rates with those prevailing during the past five years. 3. THE PRESENT STATE OF TRADE. The present state of trade is deplorably depressed; universal complaint is heard on all sides, and I would say the depression and contraction experienced with us since 1873 have been more severely felt in Germany; and their rally is not to be so soon as with us. Emerging from their victorious wars with such eclat, and from their last one with France with millions of indemnity, speculation ran riot and wild, and the collapse was so sudden and unexpected, as to cause universal losses in all trades and operations, and too often complete ruin. I would respectfully refer on this branch of the subject to my dispatch No. 44, dated October 12, 1877.* 4. COIN AND PAPER MONEY OF GERMANY. Table D is a statement of amount and character of coin and paper money, as well as their circulation, in Germany. In regard to the relation borne to each other, I have to state that both have the same value, there being no discount on paper. 5. BUSINESS HABITS AND SYSTEMS OF SAXONY. The business habits and systems of Saxony are fixed, and I might add unchangeable; all branches of trade and labor tread the same paths as those who preceded them. Banks open at 9 a. m. and stores at 8 a. m., the former closing at 7 p. m., with two hours' rest from 1 until 3 o'clock. Stores generally remain open until 9 o'clock p. m.; the latter observe the same hours of work on the Sabbath, only closing during the hours of morning church worship. Sunday is always remarkable for the crowds of people moving in all directions in pursuit of pleasure, such as beer drinking, dancing, concert music, excursions by boat and rail. The same love of pleasure and the same indifference to labor seem to animate all classes of society, no one working who is independent of labor, and those who do work perform just as little as possible for the small wages they obtain. The army absorbs the flower of the youth of Germany, and is officered by the youth of the nobility and wealth of the land. It is the only stepping-stone to distinction in the Government or to posi See Commercial Relations for 1877, page 291, a report upon the results of the FrancoGerman war as they affected the commerce and industries of Germany, 1872 to 1877. |