FOOD AND RATIONING<\/b><\/p>\n
The outbreak of war saw an immediate increase in the price of some foodstuffs, although there were disputes over what caused these, while some alleged profiteering. Shopkeepers blamed panic buying. Although the initial panic buying subsided, price inflation became a constant feature of the war. \u00a0Sugar prices were to be a particular problem.\u00a0 Most of Britain\u2019s sugar supply had come from Germany.\u00a0 Farmers in various parts of the county\u00a0 began to experiment with growing beet for themselves, sending it to Bristol for processing.\u00a0 While they found it quite possible to grow the crop, however, the expense of planting and lifting the crop proved prohibitive.<\/p>\n
Local traders continued to find themselves subject to accusations of profiteering and sought to defend themselves by blaming their suppliers.\u00a0 In May 1915 members of the Abertillery Grocers and Master Bakers Association complained about the \u201chuge dividends\u201d\u00a0 made by Spillers of Cardiff, the owners of the flour mills,\u00a0 since the war started. \u00a0The bakers pointed out that since August 1914 the price of flour had risen from 28 shillings per sack to 50 shillings.\u00a0\u00a0 The Chairman of the Master Bakers stated that he had ordered goods from Cardiff and was charged extra for the war risk.\u00a0 He indignantly posed the question \u201cWhere is the war risk between Cardiff and Abertillery?\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaina Co-op reported that in the first year of war food prices had increased by at least 30%. \u00a0Prices continued to rise throughout 1916.\u00a0 In November 1916 an Argus<\/i> survey revealed that in Newport, a box of groceries that would have cost 10\/5d in July 1914 now cost 21\/9d.\u00a0 It particularly noted an \u201cextraordinary rise\u201d in the price of potatoes.\u00a0 Dealers in Newport had previously imported large quantities of potatoes from Ireland and Belgium, relying on the competition to keep the prices down.\u00a0 In November 1915 they were paying \u00a33.50p per ton.\u00a0 By November 1916 they were paying \u00a312.50 per ton.\u00a0 When milk vendors in Abertillery and Blaina began to charge 6d a quart, there were accusations of profiteering and some local farmers threatened to withhold supplies to the vendors and turn their milk into cheese instead.<\/p>\n
In November 1916 there were protest meetings against high prices in Abercarn, Aberbeeg and other industrial centres in the valleys.<\/p>\n
Wages for some workers were rising more than rapidly enough to cope with the rise in prices. In January 1917, a\u00a0 Munitions Tribunal was told that a first at Ebbw Vale Steelworks earned an average of \u00a39 9s per week, and in\u00a0 some weeks earned up to \u00a315.\u00a0 Many others were, however, left in a desperate situation.<\/p>\n
The problems grew ever more difficult during 1917.\u00a0 Rogers\u2019 Bakery in Abertillery claimed that when it sold bread at 9 \u00bd d per loaf instead of the 11d agreed by Abertillery Bakers\u2019 Association, it had received letters from the millers threatening to withdraw supplies of flour. While the price of bread was increasing, the quality was deteriorating, leading the editor of the South Wales Gazette to comment that the bread was \u201chard and crusty and dry and \u2018sawdusty\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to point out that there had been no sugar in his household for a week.<\/p>\n
In March 1917, \u00a0police had to be called in to control queues in Aberbeeg when it was discovered that only one shopkeeper had supplies of potatoes, while in Llanhilleth none at all were to be found.\u00a0 In April the government cut the supply of beer by 50%.\u00a0 Newport Brewers Association responded by raising prices to 7d a pint. \u00a0\u00a0The Western Valleys Miners\u2019 Council calculated that in the first three years of war prices of basic foodstuffs had risen by 110%, while miners wages had only increased by 46%.<\/p>\n
Local councils responded by supplying allotments while slides advertising the importance of food control were shown in cinemas. In August 1917 sugar rationing was introduced and the following month the government fixed bread prices at 4d per loaf.<\/p>\n
Queues became commonplace over the winter of 1917-18.\u00a0 In January 1918, it was reported in the South Wales Gazette<\/i> that food queues had become \u201cdaily sights\u201d in the valleys and that there had been no cheese for a month. The \u00a0Gazette<\/i> complained of \u201coutsiders\u201d coming into Abertillery to \u201ctry their luck\u201d and cited the example of a lady who had come into the town \u201cin quest of margarine and butter\u201d but had the misfortune to be knocked down by a greengrocer\u2019s cart.\u00a0 This \u201coutsider\u201d had come all the way from Llanhilleth!<\/p>\n
Shortages extended beyond foodstuffs.\u00a0 Even in\u00a0 the mining valleys, those who did not work for the collieries were finding it extremely difficult to obtain supplies of coal.\u00a0 Almost all the coal that was being produced was going into the war effort, while shortage of trucks meant that many pits were idle for periods of time.<\/p>\n
Efforts to control prices predictably angered many tradesmen, who felt they were being unfairly accused of profiteering while at the same time being prevented from keeping their businesses in the black.\u00a0 In November 1917 milk vendors in Abertillery withdrew deliveries in protest against the local food committee\u2019s decision to set the price of milk at 7d per quart. Local butchers threatened to follow suit. The \u201cstrike\u201d left people without milk for a month, and resulted in a rush for condensed milk and local farms being \u201cbesieged\u201d, before a deal was struck with the vendors now being allowed to charge 7 \u00bd d per quart.\u00a0\u00a0 Grocers threatened to follow suit because they were frequently being threatened by people demanding that they hand over additional foodstuffs. \u00a0In Abercarn traders complained of \u201chooligans\u201d and \u201craiding of their shops\u201d . \u00a0\u00a0Mr E Bevan, a well known Abertillery grocer, declared that it was \u201creally dangerous to have food in a shop today\u201d. \u00a0<\/b>In\u00a0 January 1918 rationing of butter, margarine and tea was introduced by local food committees in most of South Wales. Meat rationing followed the next month.<\/p>\n
While this went some way to alleviating the problem, difficulties remained, particularly in the valleys. There were occasions when, for example, cheese, described by a Miners\u2019 Agent as \u201cthe staple food of the coal miner\u201d, was being advertised in Newport, but was unobtainable in the valleys. The same applied to jam, another important component of the typical miner\u2019s diet.\u00a0 One Abertillery grocer reported that he had only one pot of jam for each of his 1300 customers in the last three months.<\/p>\n
In May 1918 the South Wales Gazette reported that the Ministry of Food was asking people to accept a change in their eating habits by consuming frozen meat.\u00a0 Many people regarded this innovation as unpalatable and refused to buy it. \u00a0One staple of the diet that was still available, at least intermittently,\u00a0 was fish and chips.\u00a0 In June 1918 a fish and chip proprietor from Abertillery claimed exemption from conscription on the grounds that he alone could run his business since it involved carrying 70 stone of fish a week and, when fish was unavailable, up to two tons of potatoes.<\/p>\n
An enquiry into the food situation in Abertillery\u00a0 heard reports that miners were doing a full days work on just a chunk of dry bread and a few potatoes.\u00a0 George Barker, the Miners Agent, reported that as a result the miners \u201cdid not have the same vitality as they had before the\u00a0 war and were unable to do the same amount of work\u201d.\u00a0 He blamed the influenza outbreak that had swept the county in the summer of 1918 on the shortages.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A SHOPKEEPER CONDEMNS PANIC BUYING\u00a0 (LETTER FROM MR E BEVAN OF ABERTILLERY TO THE SOUTH WALES GAZETTE<\/i> 14TH<\/sup> AUGUST 1914)<\/b><\/p>\n Last week has been the most trying week in the lives of the grocers … They have been credited with raising the prices of some articles of food unnecessarily to the people.\u00a0 It is the mad rush of the public for these articles that is the cause of the increased prices … On Wednesday morning, the first morning of opening after the holidays,\u00a0 people were ordering twice, four, six and even ten times their ordinary quantities.\u00a0 In the afternoon I tried in Bristol, Cardiff and Newport to buy fresh stocks but failed, as they had been cleared out that morning by the rush from other towns that had opened business the previous day. I at once began to restrict the quantities bought, but this was soon overcome by several people who sent the second and third time for goods by a different person. Had the prices … remained normal there would have been none left for anyone purchasing on Saturday … Some have asked … \u201cWhy is it the price is varied at the (independent) grocers\u2019 and not at the (Co-operative) Stores?\u201d … It is, sir, because the Stores can regulate their members where a grocer has no control over his customers … The prices ruling today are not war prices but panic prices ..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A FOOD QUEUE INCIDENT (LETTER TO THE SOUTH WALES GAZETTE<\/i> 21ST<\/sup> DECEMBER 1917)<\/b><\/p>\n Last Friday I had the pleasure (!) of standing in a queue at the Maypole Company Ltd … After standing for a considerable period of time, a huge female specimen of Darwin\u2019s \u2018missing link\u2019 pushed her way into the queue ahead of a hundred \u2018poor souls\u2019, many carrying babies.\u00a0 When I asked this \u2018monstrosity\u2019 to take her\u00a0 turn, she made the air thick with \u2013well, thunder and lightning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CHASING FOOD SUPPLIES IN ABERCARN (SOUTH WALES GAZETTE<\/i> 25TH<\/sup> JANUARY 1918)<\/b><\/p>\n Seeing a wagon on Tuesday morning carrying a consignment of cheese from the railway station, and the rumour spreading quickly that it was going to the Star Supply Company in the High Street, a large crowd soon began to follow the wagon to have a share of the commodity.\u00a0 On arrival at the Star Stores it was found, to the disappointment of the anxious crowd,\u00a0 that the\u00a0 cheese was destined for another part of the district, and the wagon drove away at a good speed, the crowd making its way in the same direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FOOD AND RATIONING The outbreak of war saw an immediate increase in the price of some foodstuffs, although there were disputes over what caused these, while some alleged profiteering. Shopkeepers blamed panic buying. Although the initial panic buying subsided, price … Continue reading