130 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
This remainder has to cover coal, light, clothing, insurance, amusements 
and holidays, also the cost of tea, which was not included in the food. Coal 
has risen from Is. or Is. Id. to Is. 6d. or Is. 7d. a cwt. 
The duty on tea has caused a rise of 33 per cent, in price. Insurance, 
light, and clothing are practically unaltered. A typical weekly expenditure 
of this remainder of income is as follows : — 
Coal, 1 cwt. .... 
Is. 
6d. 
Tea, ^ lb. 
Is. 
4d. 
Gas ...... 
. Is. 
Life Insurance (whole family) . 
. 
8d. 
Remainder for clothing, etc. 
. 2s. 
lOd. 
The purchasing power of this portion of income, averaging 25 per cent, of 
the whole, has fallen by about 25 per cent., and this is equivalent to an 
increase of 6 per cent, in the cost of living. 
D. CHANGE IN COST OF LIVING. 
These investigations enable some answer to be given to the question of 
whether real wages have risen or fallen since the outbreak of war. 
The percentage of unemployment has fallen from 3 per cent, in 1911 to 
0'5 per cent, in June 1916. Thus under pre-war conditions unemployment 
represented a loss of 2*5 per cent, more of the weekly wage than in June 
1916. 
The weighted cost of food, calculated from the relative values purchased 
per penny in the family budgets studied at the two periods, has risen about 
50 per cent, since 1911-12. In the families studied about two-thirds of 
income was spent on food, so that a rise of *x 50 per cent. = 33 J per cent, 
of income would be necessary to compensate for the advance in the price 
of food. Adding to this the 6 per cent, rise from other expenditure, and 
subtracting 2 ‘5 per cent., the difference in the loss of wages due to un- 
employment at the two periods, a rise in wages of 36’8 per cent, would be 
required to keep the standard of well-being constant. 
In the recently published interim report of the Committee appointed by 
the Board of Trade to investigate the principal causes which have led to 
the increase of prices of commodities since the beginning of the war, the 
rise in the weighted cost of food is estimated at 65 per cent., which 
is equivalent to a rise of 45 per cent, in the cost of living among the 
working classes. These figures are calculated from June 1914 to 
September 1916. 
