Vor mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert suchte Arthur Lehning im Sommer 1924 auf der vielen so bekannten Adresse Lazarettgasse 32 den Geschichtsschreiber des Anarchismus und Biographen Michael Bakunins, den passionierten Sammler sozialistischer Literatur, den Historiker Dr Max Nettlau zum ersten Mal auf. Wie ein roter Faden wird sich Nettlau, der auch an der Wiege des Intemationalen Instituts für Sozialgeschichte in Amsterdam stand, bis auf den heutigen Tag durch das Leben Lehnings ziehen.

This article examines some aspects of working-class standards of living in three Lancashire towns, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancaster and Preston, in the period 1890 to 1914. By looking on one hand at a number of externally determined factors, such as real wages and the cost of living, and on the other at the strategies with which the working-class families attempted to maximise their standards of living, an assessment is made of the relative success of these various strategies, particularly at periods when wages were on or below the poverty line. Particular stress is laid on evidence from Preston, in part because it has not previously been reported, but also because there appear to be a number of significant variations between Preston on the one hand, and Barrow and Lancaster on the other, when placed in apparently similar intrinsic conditions and in comparatively close geographical proximity to each other. These variations underline the extent to which generalisations derived principally from statistical data may be misleading, and also the importance of looking at individual discrete communities before relying on theoretical models of the relationship between, for example, income from primary employment and standards of living. If it is possible to demonstrate that working-class people in some towns were more successful than their near neighbours in combating poverty, we need to identify the reasons for these differences. Factors discussed include the economy of Preston compared with Barrow and Lancaster, comparisons of wage rates, the employment of women and its effects, and diets (including the use of allotments), the effects of drinking, as well as a look at possible negative factors, such as family size, and housing and hygiene.

The prominent position of Jews in various aspects of the production, distribution and vending of beer, vodka and other grain-based intoxicants in late-eighteenth-century Poland was noted by contemporaries and registers in the meager socio-demographic data available for the period. The Jewish innkeeper, particularly in the Eastern regions of Poland, was an important representative of the Dvorf Yid — the provincial Jew as recorded in memoirs, chronicles and travellers' accounts. In the middle of the eighteenth century, 20 to 30 percent of the Jewish population of Poland was estimated to be involved in some aspect of alcohol production and distribution — what came to be called the Propinacja.