Bread Ban (2)
In order to maximise the supplies of wheat and to minimize wastage, the Director of Food Economy, Sir Arthur Yapp, launched a campaign to reduce the amount of bread eaten. Participants in the scheme would receive a badge with the slogan “I Eat Less Bread” and a certificate. In addition, householders were advised to eat slowly and only when they were absolutely hungry, to follow the custom of the poor and buy bread b weight rather than by the loaf and to limit their meals to two courses for lunch and three for dinner.
While these measures had some effect, they were voluntary and had some unanticipated consequences. A black market emerged for flour and its substitutes, people began to hoard ingredients and a marked increase in malnutrition was observed as the poor, whose diet contained a large proportion of bread, struggled to replace it. The government, concerned with the cost of bread, not only launched a bread subsidy in September 1917, which lasted until March 1921 and cost the Exchequer £162.5 million, but also effectively nationalized mills to control the cost of grain.
In May 1917 the government took firmer action, introducing the Bread Order. This required bread to be at least twelve hours old before it could be sold, effectively banning the sale of freshly baked bread, with fines to be levied, or worse, on those who broke its provisions.
The logic behind the Order was that clear. Bread that was a little stale was thought to be less appetising than fresh bread, although, according to The Times it was more nutritious, and more difficult to cut thinly so less would be eaten. The authorities reckoned that bread consumption would reduce by 5%. There were some other benefits, as bread would no longer need to be baked in the early hours of the morning, saving on fuel used for lighting and making baking more convenient for housewives who had taken over the responsibility from the menfolk who had been conscripted.
Many people were prosecuted for breaking the Bread Order. A particularly severe sentence, according to a note in the National Archives, was passed on a London tailor by the name of Louis Horowitch in October 1917. Found guilty of buying “new bread”, he was fined £50 or faced 51 days in prison. After an outcry the Home Office stepped in, granting him a pardon on January 28, 1918, calling the sentence, even if he was guilty, “inexcusable” to be levied on a “poor man”.
Harsher measures, though, were soon introduced. Lord Rhondda, the newly appointed Food Controller, introduced controlled prices in July 1917, fixing the price of essential foods, and setting up a network of local food control committees to register retailers, recommend variations in pricing, and to maintain the drive on food economy. By January 1918 sugar was ration and by April meat, butter, cheese, milk, and margarine had been added to the list. Ration books were distributed in July and households had to register with a local butcher and grocer.
Meat continued to be rationed until 1919 and rationing did not finally stop until 1920.
