Zmiany w poziomie i strukturze konsumpcji na wsi w rejonie poznańsko-bydgoskim

Abstract

The paper deals with the goods and services consumption paid for from personal income of the peasant population in individual farms of the mid-western region, comprising almost entirely the voivodships of Poznań and Bydgoszcz. The basis of the study constitute the results of agricultural accounting kept by individual peasant farms and the data of the Central Statistical Office. The analysis is based on data comprising the years 1952/58 — 1962/63, with a special stress put on the last few years of said period. In the analysed period there was an increase of personal income per one family member ranging from 4,690 zł. to 10,020 zł. In the same lapse of time the general consumption fund per capita rose from 4,595 zł, to 9,000 zł, that is to say around 96%. Taking, however, into consideration the indexes of retail prices for goods and services, it can be fairly assumed that the real rise in consumption fund was somewhat smaller, and amounted to around 85%. The increase in food consumption was also smaller than the rise in the other elements of the general consumption fund. As a result the percentage share of foodstuffs dropped from 66,5% to 53,8%. The increases in expenditures concerned mainly such items as: linen, furnitures and households ware, hygiene and health, culture, education and other. In the last group a special mention deserves: bicycles, motorcycles and cars. There was a distinct substitution process in foodstuffs consumption — an ever increasing amount of ready made foodstuffs being bought outside the farm. The share of natural consumption (produced in farm) in the general consumption fund dropped from 61% to 37%. There was also a noticeable trend to switch from low calories food items to higher ones. The average daily intake of calories per one person member was high and generally surpassed the amount of 3500 calories. Those tendencies in consumption in individual peasant farms narrowed considerably the consumption habits in towns and in the villages.