Ii.—: Increase in the Town Population, and in the Consumption of Animal Food.

An increased consumption of animal food is a sign of comfort. If the consumption of meat in the towns has not increased in proportion to the increase in population it is due to the high price of meat, of which the main cause is the Customs duties, which have risen steadily since 1881. In Paris the consumption of butcher’s meat has diminished relative to the population. While the population has increased 33 per cent. between 1880-1903, the consumption has only increased 8 per cent., and the fall from 10 per cent. in 1902 to 8 per cent. in 1903 was largely due to the Customs Act of July, 1903.

The rise in the consumption of pork was less than the rise in population until 1903, when it was slightly above it, probably because in a number of households pork has been substituted for butcher’s meat as being cheaper. The consumption of fish has remained stationary between 1880-1903. Only in the case of chicken and game has the consumption increased more than in proportion to the population; but it is a luxury. The annual ration of a Parisian is only 191 lbs. of meat, instead of the 227 lbs. of the soldier’s fare: it has gone back.

I have made an inquiry from the mayors of the towns in France whose population has most rapidly increased, comparing the development in the consumption of butchers’ meat and other animal food. With the exception of Angoulême there is no increase in the consumption of animal food except in the case of towns where the consumption was very low; and except in Bordeaux, Angoulême, and Nîmes there is no case where the consumption reaches the standard of the military ration. In Toulouse the smallness of the consumption of meat is astounding: 61/4 lbs. per head! I know that it is said that a country man coming to the town eats less meat than the native town-dweller, and that this might explain why the consumption of meat should not keep pace with the increase in numbers. But even so, the discrepancy is so striking in some towns, e.g., Lyons and Marseilles, that it is difficult not to believe that consumption has absolutely diminished, and that there is some connection between this result and the rise in the price of meat. In this rise an element is the Customs duties. Between 1863 and 1881 the importation of fresh meat was free of duty; on November 3, 1881, a duty of 1s. 3d. was imposed. The law of January 11, 1892, raised the tax to 10s. per cwt. on beef, 13s. on mutton, and 5s. on pork; the law of April, 1898, raised the duty on pork to 7s. 2d.; the law of July, 1903, to 14s. on beef and mutton and 10s. on pork.

The average price of meat at the Vilette market on August 1, from 1900-1904, taking an average of the three qualities, was as follows:—

Only in the case of pork does the price show a slight tendency to fall.