Historical Stockpiles That Look Odd but Proved Their Worth

Survivopedia looks at ordinary items whose value jumped during past shortages, and what that suggests about which cheap supplies are worth keeping.

Snapshot

Survivopedia revisits past shortages in which quinine, cigarettes, tea, toilet paper and bread took on outsized importance, from wartime supply cutoffs to a rumor-driven panic and postwar rationing. The author's lesson is that an item's worth in a crisis follows its usefulness rather than its price, which leads him to list cheap basics such as salt, soap, needles and thread.

Key points

• Quinine: A Dutch cartel controlled roughly 95 percent of supply from Java. After Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies in 1942, the US sent botanists to the Andes and imported about forty million pounds of bark.
• Cigarettes: In postwar Germany, the Bundesbank describes cigarettes serving as a key currency for a period.
• Tea: Part of its military value, the article says, was making water stored in oil cans drinkable.
• Toilet paper: The 1973 US shortage was a panic that followed a rumor, with no supply problem behind it.
• Rationing: British bread rationing began in July 1946, over a year after the war in Europe ended.

Quick take

The author says value tracks usefulness, not price, and that he measures a disruption until normal supply returns. His list of cheap items includes needles and thread, reading glasses, salt, soap and a manual can opener.

Read the full story at Survivopedia.