What Downton Abbey doesn’t tell you about the First World War (Part 2)

Another excellent entry:

What Downton Abbey doesn’t tell you about the First World War (Part 2)

February 6, 2017 ~ woostersauce2014

For part 1 – see here
Delayed Reaction –  food rationing
Another example of this delayed reaction I mentioned before is with regards to shortages and rationing. As early as late 1914, the difficulty in obtaining goods from other countries resulted into price hikes for both essential and non-essential goods. . .

An interesting item within the article:

The inefficiency of British agriculture and the commitment to free trade was one of the factors why Britain imported the bulk of its food from abroad. There were other factors as well as Jeremy Paxman noted, the British, he wrote, “lived by trade, and the growth of imperial power had rendered the country unable to feed itself any longer.” This overdependence on imported food meant that supplies were vulnerable to enemy attack . . .