FROM THE ARCHIVES:The role of the loaf of bread in the domestic diet and household budgets and in the geopolitics of the late 1930s was evident from this editorial. – JOE JOYCE
A FEW days ago housewives had an unpleasant surprise in the increase of the price of bread to 11½d. [pence] per four-pound loaf. Increases in food prices are accepted with a kind of fatalistic calm by the average consumer in this country, so that comparatively little attention is given either to their causes or to their effects.
The immediate effect of an increase in the price of bread is either a curtailment in bread consumption or a disability to purchase other necessary commodities. In all domestic budgeting bread takes premier place, accounting for about one-fifth of the total expenditure on food. Increased bread prices are, therefore, at once reflected in the index figures on the cost of living . . .
The reason for this is, of course, the dominating position held by bread in the dietary needs of the community. . . In the short period of about three weeks the price of flour has been increased on six successive occasions in Great Britain, and the price in Ireland always seems to rise somewhat in advance of London and Liverpool. The present price of the four-pound loaf in London is 9d., but the price of a comparable loaf in Dublin in 11½d. Some of the difference is accounted for by freightage – some by the deliberate action of the government in restricting imports – but the greater part is not accounted for by anything that has ever been explained.
When the Prices Commission expressed dissatisfaction and asked for action by the Minister for Industry and Commerce [Sean Lemass] in forcing a reduction in bread prices, the request was silently ignored. It needs to be explained by some competent authority why bread can be retailed in London at 2½d. per four-pound loaf less than in Dublin.
Rising bread prices are likely to be a feature of European economy for some little time to come, and there is yet no indication that the maximum has been reached. In some quarters there is a belief that wheat, flour and bread prices again may reach the levels of the worst days of the Great War.
How this situation has been brought about is one of the minor mysteries of a mysterious time, but there is no doubt that at least some of the explanation for the mystery is to be found in the heavy purchases recently made by Germany and Italy. So great have the demands of Italy been in the Argentine market that Argentina has been forced in self-defence to prohibit further exports of wheat to that country.
The reason for these heavy shipments by Germany and Italy is not apparent; part of it may be the failure of their own self-sufficiency policies, but possibly a more cogent reason may be advanced by referring to the preparations for war in both countries. These countries have entered the market heavily at a time when reserve stocks were unusually low.
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