Cost of Living in 1875 in Scotland Irish in Modern Scotland by James Edmund Handley, Cork University Press, Oxford, 1947 (pages 143-144)

Over the half century from 1850 to 1900 the adult male labourer’s weekly earnings varied between 12s. and 22s. The weekly income of the average Irish family in Scotland in that period, therefore, probably scaled between 25s and 35s. Except for tea and sugar, the prices of common articles of food remained fairly steady. Tea, which cost 5s. a lb in the 'fifties, had fallen to about 2/6 twenty years later and sugar from 7d. to 3 1/2d. a lb. Potatoes and bread were also a trifle cheaper, the four pound loaf costing 6d. and potatoes 6d. or 7d. a stone in the ‘seventies. Butter had risen in price from 1/2 to 1/6 a lb. By the ‘nineties food had fallen in cost by almost 20% of the prices prevailing in the ‘seventies, and thereafter prices remained steady until the first world war. Samples of food budgets submitted by a number of working-class households to a Glasgow newspaper in March 1875 supply information about how immigrant families made ends meet. The newspaper in the course of a leader on "How do working men live?" assumed an average of 25s a week as a fair income for a large class of workers in Glasgow and neighbourhood. Taking a representative family of husband, wife and three young children, it apportioned 3s. weekly to cover rent of a single apartment plus taxes and water rates, and another 2/6 for fuel and gas. For food it suggested the following estimate: 8 loaves of bread at 6 1/2d. the four-pound loaf; 4 ounces of tea, 7 1/2d.; 4 ounces of coffee, 5d.; oatmeal, flour and rice, 2/6; milk, butter and cheese, 3s.; butcher meat, 6d. per day, 3/6d.; potatoes and vegetables, 2/6d.; fish, 1s.; treacle, dripping, etc., 1/2; making a total of 18s. and, including rent, fuel and light, weekly expenditure of 1 3 6 £. This left only 1/6 to pay for church dues, school fees, medical attention, soap, soda and sundries, subscription to friendly society, books, stationery, newspapers, trip to the coast and extras in time of distress. There remained the important item of clothing the family. An examination of the illustrative budgets the leader called forth from members of the working class shows that the newspaper's estimate was substantially correct. The following weekly budget was typical. It was submitted by a family consisting of husband, wife and five children varying in age from three to fifteen. The man was employed as a bookkeeper at 25s. a week. The yearly rent for his three-apartment house was 13 £ 10/- or about 17 £ when gas, water and other rates were added. A bedroom was let at 5/6 a week, and the two eldest boys earned jointly' 9/6, bringing a total weekly income to the house of 2 £. The money apportioned to food for the week was distributed in the following manner: 7 loaves of bread, 3/6; 7 lb meal and 2 lb flour, 1/9; milk, 1/5; 1/4 lb each tea and coffee, 1/1; 4 lb sugar, 1/1; 2 lb butter, 3/-; 7 lb meat, 5/3; 2 stones of potatoes, 1/2; barley and rice, 6d; vegetables, 4d.; eggs, 1/6; soap, soda and sundries, 1/6; making a total of £ 1 2 2. To this sum there remained to be added school fees for two children, 6d., and fuel, 2/10, with an allowance of 7s. to cover rent, gas and rates, giving a total of £ 1 12 6 and a surplus of 7/6 from the income to meet all other expenses. Ready-made clothing tended to become cheaper with the development of machinery for the tailoring trade, but the immigrant labourer usually found it more economical to buy at least his working clothes in the second-hand markets run by his countrymen.

	Updated on Saturday, 01-Jul-2000 18:09:00 MDT