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Food Production and Policy in the United Kingdom, 1914–1918 The Alexander Prize Essay
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2009
Extract
Historians are in general agreement on the problem of United Kingdom food supplies during the First World War. The broad picture is as follows; during the first eighteen months or so of the war, supplies both from home and abroad were well maintained. The government therefore had no need to intervene, either in procuring or distributing food, although it took certain measures to safeguard future supplies for the Army. During 1916, however, the position changed; there had been poor harvests both in the United Kingdom and the Americas (the chief source of imported food), and the German High Command were known to be planning a new, ‘unlimited’ submarine campaign, with the aim of sinking as much shipping as possible (whether British or neutral), in order to drastically curtail imports of food and war material, and thus force a British surrender.
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References
1 This is substantially the picture presented in Middleton, T. H., Food Production in War (Oxford, 1923)Google Scholar, ch. I, and Lord Ernle (R. E. Prothero), English Farming Past and Present (6th edn., Lodnon, 1961)Google Scholar, ch. XIX. The early contracts made to assure supplies for the Army are dealt with in Beveridge, W. H., British Food Control (London, 1928), pp. 11–13Google Scholar. The progress of the submarine campaign is chartered in Salter, J. A., Allied Shipping Control (Oxford, 1921), especially Table No. 6, pp. 355–9.Google Scholar
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5 Middleton, , Food Production, p. 166Google Scholar. The Food Production Department is hereafter referred to as the F.P.D.
6 Salter, , Allied Shipping Control, p. 125Google Scholar. A brief account of Lloyd George's action is given in Taylor, A. J. P., English History 1914–1945 (Oxford, 1965), pp. 84–5.Google Scholar
7 The chronology of rationing is conveniently set out in Marrack, J. R., Food and Planning (London, 1943), p. 169.Google Scholar
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12 See, for example, Franklyn, T. B., A History of Agriculture (London, 1948), p. 181Google Scholar: ‘The farmers and farm workers had saved the country from starvation by the blockade of the enemy submarines.…’
13 Ibid.
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![](https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20151127090647269-0998:S008044010002154X_eqnU1.gif?pub-status=live)
These figures suggest that the ‘residual’ column above is rather too low, partly because Navy enlistments have been ignored, and partly (presumably) because there was a lag before deaths in action were reflected in the returns of Army strength.
36 Salter, J. A., Allied Shipping Control (Oxford, 1921), Table 6, pp. 355–59.Google Scholar
37 Import volumes are from Annual Statement of Trade; calorie-ton equivalents are from Royal Society, Food Supply, Appendix 1a. It should be noted that a part of the decline in imports is accounted for by direct provision of troops overseas, chiefly on the Western Front. However, a substantial proportion of the Army remained in Britain; about 1.5 million men were engaged on Home Defence at the Armistice (War Office, Statistics, p. 877Google Scholar), to which one should add those on leave or receiving medical treatment in the United Kingdom.
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54 Ibid., pp. 95–100.
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57 See the table of rationed items in Marrack, , Food and Planning, p. 169.Google Scholar
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