Purchasing Power Question

G'day, I have attmpted a similar exercise, but not in relation to any of the countries you are researching.
I found that when reading texts devoted to political, or economic, or social history, I might stumble across references to the price of bread, or raw wheat, and occasionally, cheese. Sometimes, I would find references to agricultural or other labourers' wages. If you read military or naval history, you might be lucky to find a mention of a soldier or a sailor's wages: bear in mind that these were often lowly-paid, but they had better security of employment, if they didn't die.
Another angle, for wider comparison, might be to look at the intrinsic value of the coinage. Until the 20th Century, coins had a nominal value that was close to the intrinsic value of the metal. Austria-Hungary had gold coinage, so that enables you to compare its currency to other countrird using gold. As I understand it, gold was circulated upto WW1. Gold coins were still produced thereafter, but were not generally circulated at their face value.

There are essential and inescapable differences from place to place. The differences over time, in one place, might be significantly less. For example, the price of a kilo of rice, a staple in Japan, is determined by a market with many buyers and many sellers. The price of rice at other times, in other places, is not the subject of comparable factors. In those other places, the price of potatoes, or wheat, or something else, might give a better comparison, over time.

At the end of your task, I fear that your comparisons will be of limited value - which is not to say, "no value". I wish you well,

Peter in Oz

Prices of some items in 19th century Japan :
http://www.storyanime.com/Resources/Money.htm

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All I know at the moment, is that before the war, a Volkswagen was supposed to cost around 1000 Reichsmark, but that's it...

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Problem is that this was a political goal of the nazis rather than a realistic price. The KdF-Wagen or Volkswagen was supposed to cost 990 RM, and people could sign up for savings plans ... but this program started in 1938, shortly before WW2. As far as I know that KdF-Wagen was (except for a few prototypes) never commercially produced.

Also, most prices in Nazi Germany were government controlled. So the official inflation rate was relatively low. To prevent people from consuming much, a certain part of the salary went into "iron accounts". Those were like savings accounts, you would get the usual interest rate, except that the money was not supposed to be disposable until the, errm, final victory. The consumer price index (base 1913/14 = 100) went from 121.1 (1934) to 126.2 (1939) to 141.4 (1944).

The average annual salary was 1637 RM in 1934 and 1986 RM in 1939 (no info for the war years). The average hourly wage was 78.3 Pf in 1934, 79.1 Pf in 1939 and 80.9 Pf in 1943. And here are some food prices (pf/kg or pf/l) for 1933-1938. Again, I have no info about the war years but then again food was rationed between 1939 and 1949.

Rye Bread 45 45 44 44 44 44
Sugar 76 77 78 77 77 77
Veal 157 164 181 217 209 206
Poultry 190 198 219 263 253 250
Eggs (1 egg) 10 11 11 11 11 12
Milk 15 17 16 17 17 17
Coffee 551 533 529 525 521 525
Beer 76 76 75 76 75 75

Apartment cost (rent) stayed at 121 (index 1913=100), heating/electricity was around 125. Clothing: 107 (1933), 111, 118, 120, 126, 130. All these prices are from W.Trapp/T.Fried, Handbuch der Münzkunde und des Geldwesens in Deutschland ...

Christian