The per capita consumption of wool in England, about a generation ago, amounted to about 4 lbs. a year; in Prussia to 1.67; of cloth, to 5.76 and 2.17 ells; of leather, to 3.03 and 2.22 lbs. respectively.[229-10] Of silk goods, England consumes half as much as the rest of all Europe, and an Englishman from 5 to 6 times as much as a Frenchman, although England does not produce a single pound of raw silk.[229-11]
[229-1] Thus, for instance, the modern enjoyments of coffee, tea, newspapers, tobacco etc., promote domesticity with which antiquity was so little acquainted. Zaccharia, Vierzig Bücher, VI, 60.
[229-2] The food of the French people has improved also in point of quantity. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, of cereals there were 472 liters per capita, at present there are 541 liters; and in addition, now, 240 liters of potatoes and vegetables more than then. Compare Moreau de Joannès, Statistique de l'Agriculture de la France, 1848, and the same writer's Statistique céréale de la France, in the Journal des Economistes, 1842, Janv. On the recent decrease or increase in the consumption of meat, see the very different estimates of M. Chevalier, Cours., I, 113 seq., and Journal des Economistes, Mars, 1856, 438 ff.
[229-3] Ch. Smith, Tracts on the Corn Trade, 1758, 182. Eden, State of the Poor, I, 563, seq. In McCulloch, Statist, I, 316, 466 ff., 548. Moreover, Rogers says that English workmen in the middle ages, for the most part, consumed wheat bread. (Statist. Journal, 1864, 73.) About the middle of the 13th century, only from 11 to 12 malters of wheat were produced on the estates of the bishop of Osnabrück; about 470 of oats, 300 of rye, and 120 of barley. (J. Möser, Osnabrück, Gesch., Werke, VII, 2. 166.) Even beer was brewed from oats in the earlier part of the middle ages. (Guérard, Polyptiques, I, 710 ff.) The ancients, also, in their lower stages of civilization, lived on barley bread by way of preference, and went over to wheat only at a later period; compare Plin., H. N. XVIII, 14. Heracl., Pont, fr. 2. Athen., IV., 137, 141. Plutarch, Alcib., 23. As to how, in Rome, the transition from far to the much more costly triticum, was connected with the extension of the hide of land from 2 to 7 jugera, see M. Voigt in the Rhein. Museum f. Philol., 1868.
[229-4] To this, in Saxony, must be added about from 6 to 7 pounds of veal and mutton. The recent increase in the consumption of meat in Saxony is very encouraging: 1840, about 30 lbs. of beef and pork per capita; 1851-57, 40 lbs. (Sächs. Statist. Ztschr., 1867, 143 seq.) On the other hand, Schmoller estimated the consumption of meat in general in Prussia, in 1802, at 33.8; in 1816, at 22.5; in 1840, at 34.6; in 1867, at 34.9 lbs. (Fühling, N. Landw. Zeitg., XIX; Jahrg. Heft., 9 seq.) Paris consumed, in 1850, 145 pounds of butcher's meat per capita; in 1869, 194 pounds. In the year of the revolution, 1848, the consumption declined 45 per cent.; the consumption of wine in barrels, 16 per cent.; in bottles, 44 per cent.; of sea-fish, 25 per cent.; of oysters, 24 per cent.; of beer, 20 per cent.; of eggs, 19 per cent.; of butter, 13 per cent.; of fowl, 6 per cent. (Cl. Juglar, in the Journal des Economistes, March, 1870.)
[229-5] Porter, Progress of the Nation, V, 5, 591 ff.; Hildesheim, Normaldiet, 52 ff. Well-known English popular song: "Oh, the roast beef of old England" etc. Even at the end of the 17th century one-half of the nation partook of fresh meat scarcely once or twice a week; most of that consumed was salted. (Macaulay, History of England, ch. 3.) But even Boisguillebert, Traité des Grains, II, 7, characterizes the English as great beer-drinkers and meat-eaters, from the highest class to the lowest, while the French consumed almost nothing but bread. Similarly J. J. Becher, Physiologie, 1678, 202, 248, on the great consumption of meat and sugar in England.
[229-6] Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a. 1743; Porter, Progress, V, 4, 350 ff.; Meidinger, 154 ff.; Memorandum respecting British Commerce, etc., before and since the Adoption of Free Trade, 1866. On men-of-war each man gets 35-45 lbs. a year; in the poorhouse, old men 22¾. (Porter.)
[229-7] In Henry IV.'s time, in France, sugar was sold by the apothecaries by the ounce!
[229-8] Deiterici, Statist. Uebersicht des Verkehrs, etc. im Zollvereine, 4; Fortsetzung, 168 ff., 208, 265, 599. Thus, in Great Britain, the population between 1816 and 1828 grew, from 13½ million to nearly 16 million. On the other hand, consumption, when the average from 1816 to 1819 is compared with that from 1824 to 1828, increased in a much greater proportion: soap, from 67¾ to 100 million pounds; coffee, from 7,850,000 to 12,540,000 pounds; starch, from 3-1/5 to 6-1/3 million pounds. (Quart. Rev., Nov., 1829, 518.) The consumption of tea per capita in 1801 was 1.5 lbs., in 1871, 3.93 lbs. (Statist. Journ., 1872, 243.) In the matter of illumination, a very beneficent luxury has been obtained, inasmuch as, spite of the fact that gas-light is so generally used in recent times, i. e., since 1804, the consumption of oil has very much increased, on account of the lamps now so much in favor; and that of candles also has increased, relatively speaking, more rapidly than the population. The illumination produced is much richer now than formerly, a fact which, besides its sanitary advantages, has had a good influence in diminishing street robberies. (Julius, Gefängnisskunde, XXII.) During the middle ages, candles were very dear; according to Rogers (I, 415) 1-1/3 to 2 shillings per pound.
[229-9] Present state of England, 1683, III, 529; compare Storch, Handbuch, II, 337 seq.