Views on the Costs of Life in Galaţi, at the End of the XIXth Century and the Beginning of the XXth
Views on the Costs of Life in Galaţi, at the End of the XIXth Century and the Beginning of the XXth

Summary/Abstract: Investigating the history of a human community involves knowing the level of the costs of living. Therefore, in order to acquire a proper understanding of the life in Galaţi, at the end of the XIX-th century, the answers to the following questions: How did the inhabitants of Galaţi of those days earn their living and what was their level of living are of foremost importance. For our endeavour, it is important to find out: the professional profile of the inhabitants of the city, the income of the various professional groups, the prices of commodities and of the luxury items. According to these parameters, we can get a glimpse of the level of living and of the costs of living. We don’t intend to present comprehensive statistics in this respect, but, for different categories of people, to present an adequate image of the balance between offer and demand on the local market, as an indicator of the cost of life in the Danubian port of Galaţi, during the age under focus. It is well known that the level of life of a community is related to the degree of economical and social modernity and to the mentality that underlies its existence. Therefore, it would be interesting to approach our topic starting from several general remarks about the economical and social evolution, both at a national and international level. Hence, we will get an image of the evolution of this aspect at a local level, at the crossing between the XIX-th and the XX-th century. Within this context, of foremost importance is the correlation between the level of the income, specific to each professional group, the offer of the local market and the standard of life, imposed by the social statute, by the level of education and by mentalities. Generally speaking, the cost of life in Galaţi was at the same level with the cost of life at a national scale, with some peculiarities deriving from the specific condition of the local economy. The documentary sources we availed of in our endeavour proved to be not sufficient for a precise and exhaustive analysis of the cost of life, specific to each professional category. Nevertheless, it was possible to sketch a realist and significant image of the local daily life, during that age. We can state that the cost of life in the town of Galaţi, at the end of the XIX-th and the beginning of the XX-th century, ranged along three major levels: minimal, average and maximum, with a blurred demarcation, with variations in time and according to each social level.

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