Why were prices so high in the first world war?
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Why were prices so high in the first world war?What caused the prices in ww1 to rise so heavily (ie bread rose in its cost by 75% towards the end) and why did the Liberals choose not to tackle the price problem and bring in measures to cap the costs?
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Re: Why were prices so high in the first world war?The UK is an island, it was cut off from imports that mainly came from Mainland Europe, everything had to be homegrown and was in slow supply but high demand thus prices went up as it was getting more difficult to procure.
Basically demand outstripped supply and thus prices rose. -
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Re: Why were prices so high in the first world war?So the government couldn't have done anything to stop those prices, or did they chose not to do anything because they didn't believe in interfering?(Original post by tehFrance)
The UK is an island, it was cut off from imports that mainly came from Mainland Europe, everything had to be homegrown and was in slow supply but high demand thus prices went up as it was getting more difficult to procure.
Basically demand outstripped supply and thus prices rose. -
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Re: Why were prices so high in the first world war?From what I understand, they couldn't stop it from going up if they tried, people had to break-even at least, couple that with inflation and the rises just sky rocketed. It was a sad state of affairs.(Original post by tinman1)
So the government couldn't have done anything to stop those prices, or did they chose not to do anything because they didn't believe in interfering? -
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Re: Why were prices so high in the first world war?They wasn't much they could do to bring down inflation anyhow. The German submarine blockade was cutting imports and as much domestic industry as possible was geared towards military production. To bring down inflation that would have ment diverting Armed Forces spending away from the war efforct, which was a big no no so long as Jerry still occupied Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force was actually the best supplied army in the war and was one of the reasons that it didn't suffer from mutiny like the other major combatants.(Original post by tinman1)
So the government couldn't have done anything to stop those prices, or did they chose not to do anything because they didn't believe in interfering?
