Civil War Rationing

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The process of rationing was giving specific and limited amounts of clothing and food to people during hardships. Rationing was an easy way to keep prices low and was designed to make sure people had what they needed without having anything extra to possibly go to waste. People often wonder how much was given to a person during a time of hardships, why rationing had to be done, and what was rationed during war. The government had main control of the rationing system. They had to do this to protect people and make sure everyone was getting their equal and fair share.
What the government thought was fair, however, wasn’t always fair to the people receiving the rations. Some items that were rationed to families of two or three people, were rationed in that exact same amount for …show more content…

At this point, money meant nothing! Even if families had money to buy more items, they were not allowed. Because all things were rationed, a family was not allowed to have more than what their stamp was worth. People were only allowed to buy a small amount of things even if you had the money to buy more. Most things were rationed because of the war.
No one liked this idea, but it had to be done in order to save lives. It all made sure that no one went hungry. It certainly was more difficult for larger families to do this. You had to have a ration book, and that was like money but harder to use so freely. They were the size of a postcard, and each page had some ration stamps. One ration stamp would be about the same size as a quarter. You couldn’t buy anything without these.
A person could not purchase a rationed item without giving the store clerk the right ration stamp. Once all the stamps were used up, you couldn't buy more. That meant that you had to plan meals carefully, be creative with menus, and trying your very best to not waste the food. They were very valuable. The amount of stamps you got for the month, that was

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