RATIONING.

Assisted by the development of state bureaucracies and technologies of mass communication, rationing enabled governments to plan, control, and restrict the allocation of scarce resources. It was commonly used during periods of war, famine, and other emergencies to ensure equitable distribution of food, fuel, and consumer goods. In order to keep prices affordable for the lowest paid, rationing was usually accompanied by price fixing and compulsory savings schemes. All the major European combatant nations implemented some form of rationing during World Wars I and II, as normal peacetime production of essentials declined and each side attempted to strangle the other's supplies of food and raw materials. Rationing was also continued by some nations after 1918 and 1945 to cope with postwar shortages. As well as being a familiar part of military life, rationing was central to governments' attempts to maintain wartime civilian morale, persuading their public that hardships were being shared equally across class and other boundaries.

WORLD WAR I, 1914–1918

The scope and allocation of rationed items during World War I depended on the phase of the conflict and the state of supplies in a particular country at a given time. Germany, for example, introduced clothes rationing and restrictions on the use of soap. France put limits on the number of lightbulbs that could be used to illuminate people's homes. But food was the principal focus of rationing. In Germany, where food shortages threatened widespread starvation, bread rationing began in 1915 and was followed by a general scheme in 1916, coordinated by the newly created War Food Office. A combination of Allied blockade and the diversion of resources away from agriculture meant that food rations in Germany fell below subsistence levels. Consumption of cereals, meat, and fats dropped sharply and a black market flourished; perhaps as much as 50 percent of all food in Germany was bought illegally after general rationing began. As elsewhere in Europe, food shortages were most acute in urban areas; the rural population could supplement rations with their own "self supplies," and governments found it difficult to monitor rations in the countryside. When a poor harvest in 1917 brought a food crisis to German cities such as Berlin and Leipzig, the resulting strikes and massive "bread and peace" demonstrations undermined the German war effort. There were similar problems in Austria, where more than six hundred thousand workers went on strike in January 1918 after the flour ration was cut.

In contrast, Britain's food supplies were largely undisturbed before 1917, despite the fact that the country was more dependent on imported food than any of its European neighbors. Britain experimented with "voluntary rationing" in February 1917, by which the authorities issued guidelines on what people should eat and hoped that individuals would adjust their diets accordingly. When the success of the U-boat blockade produced a food crisis in late 1917, the government issued ration cards as part of a general scheme the following January. As was the case in France, where ration cards were made compulsory in June 1918, the controlled distribution of food and accompanying price controls were aimed more at defusing worker discontent than at preventing starvation. Britain and France had both seen how food shortages in the cities had contributed to military collapse and revolution in their wartime ally Russia. In Italy, where prewar living standards were relatively low, the wartime drop of 10 percent in agricultural production meant real hardship for millions, particularly in the northern cities. Both Turin and Milan saw unrest in 1917 after a poor harvest. Ration cards were made obligatory in Italy in 1917, first for bread and later for other foodstuffs. Along with Britain, where sugar, fats, and meat were rationed until 1920, Italy continued to use ration cards until 1921.

WORLD WAR II, 1939–1945

Lessons learned about rationing in 1914–1918 guided state policies during World War II. Again, however, black markets thrived. Most countries, including neutrals such as Switzerland, introduced general rationing schemes at an early stage of this conflict. In Germany, where the Nazis were determined to avoid the starvation diets that broke popular support for the Kaiser's war effort, rationing was introduced in August 1939. By plundering supplies in occupied territories, German food rations remained among the highest in Europe until the latter part of the war. At the other end of the scale, rationing in the Soviet Union did little more than ensure that malnutrition was spread equitably across the population. Millions of Soviet citizens had relied on food rations during the 1930s. After the German invasion of 1941, the average Soviet worker's diet consisted of one pound of bread per day plus a few scraps of fat and meat. Miners and metalworkers were entitled to a greater allowance because they did heavy physical work, but such was the shortage of food that the full ration was not always met. Only by growing vegetables in every patch of garden available did the Soviet people avoid starvation. In France, the Vichy government administered a system of ration cards from September 1940 onward. Food allocation was dependent on age—each consumer was placed into one of six age bands—and there were extra allowances for heavy laborers and pregnant women. By 1941 virtually everything that could be bought in French shops was rationed. Britain rationed butter, bacon, and sugar from January 1940; in March, meat and other items were added to this list. In 1941 the government introduced a "points" system of rationing for clothes; this was extended to tinned foods and then other foodstuffs in 1942. Under this scheme, consumers received points in the form of coupons and could choose how to spend their allocation. The point value of particular items was adjusted in line with domestic production, shipping losses, and seasonal preferences.

POSTWAR EUROPE

Wartime rationing was relatively popular in Britain, where it was regarded as an egalitarian feature of the "people's war." By forcing people to eat a more nutritious diet, it also produced health benefits. It was much less popular in the postwar years, not least because food rations in 1947 fell below their wartime level. Most countries phased out rationing in the late 1940s, including the Soviet Union, which scrapped restrictions in December 1947. Britain maintained rationing in some form until 1954, and briefly reintroduced petrol rationing during the 1956 Suez crisis. The Netherlands rationed fuel in the oil crisis of 1973. In Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania, where food exports were increased to meet the country's crippling foreign debt, strict rationing of food was maintained from 1982 until the regime's downfall in 1989.

See alsoAgriculture; Marshall Plan; Reconstruction.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hardach, Gerd. The First World War, 1914–1918. Translated by Peter and Betty Ross. London, 1977.

Kroener, Bernhard. Germany and the Second World War. Vol. 5: Organisation and Mobilisation of the German Sphere of Power. Part 2: Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources, 1942–1944/5. Translated by Derry Cook-Radmore. Oxford, U.K., 2003.

Milward, Alan S. War, Economy, and Society: 1939–1945. London, 1977.

Osokina, Elina. Our Daily Bread: Socialist Distribution and the Art of Survival in Stalin's Russia, 1927–1941. Translated by Kate Transchel and Greta Bucher. London, 2000.

Williams, John. The Home Fronts: Britain, France, and Germany, 1914–1918. London, 1972.

Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Ina. Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls and Consumption, 1939–1955. Oxford, U.K., 2000.

Mark Donnelly