What is a ration book?

Answer

a book that buys you neccesities like coupons

Answer

During the Second World War, the Allied nations implemented "Rationing" of many items, to control the use and price of things that would be important to winning the war.

Examples of things that were rationed.

Food of all kinds, especially meat, and sugar, and eggs. Cloth and finished clothing. Leather goods, especially shoes, and belts. Gasoline, oil, and rubber tires, as well as auto parts and gaskets.

The reasons for rationing? To make sure that the Armed Forces had the needed materials to feed, cloth, and equip their manpower. Remember that every serviceman had to be fed every day, and clothed, and provided with several uniforms for different uses and seasons of the year.

Ration books were issued to the civillian population by wartime control commissions from local offices. Different books for different types of materials. Each page held a number of detachable stamps for a certain item. Once you had used up your stamps for that month you were out of luck, untill the next month began. Food, clothing, gasoline, travel and paper were all controlled under the wartime regulations. Only those who had a priority job could get gas and most people stored their cars "for the duration of the war". The three big car makers stopped making civillian cars in 1942, and made only military vehicles untill 1946.

People were also urged to join local scrap drives, that gathered metal, or glass bottles, or newspaper to be recycled. Grease from cooking was also needed, to be made into lubricants, as was scrap food and bones.

In America, the effect of rationing was not that severe, but in Great Britain, the generation of kids that were born between 1940 and 1950 were under-sized and sickly, because of severe protein deficiency. In 1956, I and my Mum visited relatives in London and some things were still being rationed ten years after the end of the war!! The fact that all most all the food that was consumed during the war in Britain had to be imported by ship convoys, which were subject to U-boat attacks, resulted in severe food shortages there.

In Canada, rationing was intended to not only control consumption at home but also to send excess food to Britain. Canadian butter and bacon were shipped in huge amounts, as well as liquid eggs and flour by the ton. Fruit jams made from Canadian peaches and strawberries went too.

Answer

The government worried that shortages would make prices on the home front rise higher and higher -- with scarce goods going to the highest bidder. To prevent rising prices, the federal Office of Price Administration (OPA) began to ration (restrict purchases of) essential goods such as sugar, coffee, and gas.

Ration books were coupons you used to buy certain products. Each red or blue coupon was worth a certain number of "points." The OPA allowed every American 64 red points (for meat, butter, and fats) and 48 blue points (for processed foods like ketchup) every month. The the store, grocers tagged food by price and point. A pound of pork chops might cost 38? and 8 red points, depending on the cut and how much pork was available.

First answer by Socalsurfnici. Last edit by Socalsurfnici. Contributor trust: 267 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 36 [recommend question]