| Description
| Motor Fuel Ration Book, dated 29th March 1957 and issued in Glasgow by the Ministry of Fuel and Power. The owner lived in Hamilton. Contains coupons for different quantities of fuel, measured in 'units' of either 3, 2 or 1, with a limitation on monthly consumption. Issued for use of up to six months. A coupon would have to be torn out and presented to the petrol station in order to refuel the car. Stamped:
"West Nile St.
E
29 Mr 57
Glasgow"
This book is a really interesting example, as it is a snapshot of a remarkable moment in time. It is dated March 1957, in the middle of a five-month period when fuel rationing was re-introduced because of the Suez Crisis. This had inhibited Britain's supply of oil from Iran and the far east - which travelled through the Suez Canal - and had caused fuel shortages and price inflation. The rationing ended two months later, as the crisis eased. At the time, Egypt's success in holding the canal was seen as an indicator of the decline of French and British imperial power. The fiasco led to the resignation of Anthony Eden as Prime Minister.
Rationing was initially a response by the British government to the shortages of food and raw materials during the Second World War.This was a way to more effectively control the distribution of goods at a time when they were in short supply. This ensured more equal resource distribution to the population as well as preventing speculators from buying up large stocks, creating a scarcity and then selling the goods at an overinflated price. Everyday items, from tea to meat and fuel were all rationed. It remained after the war, with shortages continuing and the British economy under pressure to reduce imports due to large debts accumulated during the war. Most rationing ended by the early 1950s, with the economy improving. At the time it was very contentious political issue, with the Labour government defending the system as a way to prevent shortages and the Conservatives seeing it as an assault on free trade. It also represented the most active state intervention ever in people's nutrition. The government recruited various nutritionists, including the Glasgow scientist John Boyd Orr, to formulate a balanced weekly diet that formed the basis of the ration book. Many nutritional deficiences such as rickets were tackled on a large scale for the first time. As a result, despite modern perceptions of it as being austere and authoritarian, the population was healthier than ever before. |
