_To the Chairman, Provisional Government, Ireland._
By minute dated the 10th June last we were appointed by the Government
to determine the cost of living in Ireland for the months of March and
June, 1922, as compared with the cost of living in July, 1914, on such a
basis as would show the average increase in the cost of maintaining the
same standard of living for a family dependent on wage earnings. We were
asked to complete our calculations not later than July 15th, if
possible, but owing to the fact that a considerable proportion of our
staff were unable to reach our offices during the recent troubles in
Dublin we were given until the 25th to complete our work. The following
letter was sent to the Head of the Government on the 26th July:--
"A Chara,--The Report of the Cost of Living Committee is not yet
finally drafted, but the main lines of it have been agreed upon. We
think, therefore, that we ought to acquaint you at once that our
investigations show that the percentage increase in the Cost of
Living of Wage Earning Classes in Ireland between July, 1914, and
June, 1922, is 85.2 per cent. and the increase between July, 1914
and March, 1922, is 91.4 per cent.
"Sinne, le meas mor,"
The following Report, while bringing out the points essential to a
purely Irish cost of living inquiry, can hardly be regarded as
exhaustive, in view of the mass of figures collected which could be
examined from many different points of view. Had we been able to spend a
longer time in digesting these figures we should not have arrived at any
different final result as regards the Irish cost of living figure; but
we think that many interesting and important facts might be brought out
by a further analysis of the figures which we have not had time to
undertake, and we suggest, therefore, that the Government should request
the Ministry of Economic Affairs to investigate more thoroughly, from
the point of view of their general economic significance, the figures
collected and compiled.
Method of Compiling Cost of Living Figures.
In every country in which cost of living figures have been obtained the
same method, as far as broad lines are concerned, has been followed. The
method adopted is to ascertain the average retail prices for a number of
representative commodities for the dates to be compared and then to
combine these retail prices in a single figure representing the change
in retail prices as a whole. This combination is not effected by a plain
average, but the individual price changes are "weighted" according to a
comparison of the amounts spent on each of the commodities concerned
(_e.g._, a change in the price of a commodity such as bread, must
obviously be given more "weight" than a change in the price of such
commodities as cheese or soap) and in order to determine the proper
"weight" to attach to the retail price changes, representative family
budgets are obtained showing the details of the actual expenditure of a
large number of households. By combining these budgets it is possible to
discover the relationship between the consumption of the various items;
for instance, 12s. may be spent on meat for every 5s. 6d. spent on
butter, and so on. The retail price changes can then be "weighted"
according to the results given by the budgets and the final figure
arrived at by combining them on these lines.
Stages of our Inquiry.
Our inquiry can, therefore, be divided into four main stages:
=(A)= The collection of retail prices for July, 1914, and March and
June, 1922.
=(B)= The collection and analysis of representative family budgets
by means of which to determine the "weighting" of the retail price
changes.
=(C)= The combination of the retail price changes by means of the
"weights" so obtained into one final figure.
=(D)= The results of applying different methods of "weighting."
(A) Collection of Retail Prices.
We found that as regards articles of food much of the information we
required had already been collected by the Ministry of Economic Affairs
who had obtained returns for July, 1914, and March, 1922, from 420
sources in towns of 500 persons and upwards; and also that retail prices
of a certain number of articles of food had been collected in 1914, in
Ireland by the Labour Statistics Branch of the Board of Trade.
Our first task was, therefore, to collect returns of the retail prices
in June, 1922, of all the commodities selected, and of the corresponding
prices in July, 1914, and March, 1922, where these were not already at
our disposal.
Forms were accordingly drawn up on which this information could be
collected and specimens of these forms are shown in the Appendix to the
Report.
(1) _Food, Clothing, Fuel and Light, and Sundries._
These forms for food, clothing, fuel and light and sundries, were sent
out for completion through the channels used by the Ministry for
Economic Affairs in its inquiry (viz.:--officials of the Post Office, of
the Ministry of Labour, and of the Local Government Board, and in the
Six-County area through other sources), and to the same towns as in that
inquiry (viz.:--towns with populations of 500 and over). In the case of
the larger towns more than one report was asked for, graduating from two
returns to twenty returns according to their population as shown in the
Census of 1911.
The following table summarises essential particulars regarding the
forms:--
---------------------------+-----------+----------+---------------------
| | Number |
| Number | of | Returns
Form. | of Forms | Towns | collected
|dealt with.|from which| by
| | received.|
---------------------------+-----------+----------+---------------------
Prices (Food) A | 450 | 250 } |
Prices (Food, Fuel and | | } |Post Office, Ministry
Light and Sundries) B 2| 436 | 220 } | of Labour, and
Prices (Meat) B 3| 434 | 227 } | Local Government
Prices (Clothing) B 4| 436 | 216 } | Board Officials.
Rents B 5| 91 | 71 |Rate Collectors and
| | | Town Clerks.
---------------------------+-----------+----------+---------------------
(2) _Rents._--The forms for rents were issued through the Local
Government Board, and in the Six-County area through other sources, and
filled in for the most part by Rate Collectors in the several districts
and towns in Ireland. They were asked to state the rents in July, 1914,
and in March, and June, 1922, of about 20 houses in their districts
showing the number of rooms and the Poor Law Valuation, the latter
figures enabling us to ensure that the same classes of houses of wage
earners were being compared. Enquiry was also made in connection with
the rents of tenements, and due allowance was made for this in the final
figures. The rent figures include rates in every case.
(3) _Compilation of prices for individual commodities._--The next step
was to calculate from these returns the average retail prices of the
individual commodities selected, and this was done as follows:--
* * * * *
One set of average retail prices was compiled from the returns of the
Post Office officials, and another from those of the other officials,
and a division of the forms was made on this basis.
The retail prices of food, etc. (on Forms A, B2 and B3), and of clothing
(Form B4) were then separately summarised in the two groups, viz.--those
received from the Post Office officials and those received from the
officials of the other Departments for July, 1914, and March and June,
1922.
(4) _Compilation of Rent Returns._
The rent returns were treated in precisely the same manner, except that
there was no division, since the returns were received through the Local
Government Board only.