What caused rationing during ww2?
Rationing in Europe was not confined to food, it affected nearly everything, clothing, household goods, fuel and even goods that were not formally rationed were often in short supply , such as soap and matches, The radical reduction in imports and exports caused by shipping losses and orher enemy action were important factors, but in Europe a major factor was also total war mobilisation on all fronts, the economic, civilian and military, which meant that maximum resources were devoted to the war effort at the expense of goods for civilian consumers. It was not a shortage of money – with the war came the end of mass unemployment so paradoxically some were better off in terms of income than they were pre-war – just a shortage of food and other consumer goods.
