Food supplies and hunger

Until the beginning of the winter of 1936, the civilian population of Catalonia did not experience food shortages. In fact, the beginning of the collectivisations meant that the food supply initially increased. Even so, Catalonia suffered from a basic structural problem: it relied on bringing food from other parts of the country that were now either under rebel control, cut off from Catalonia, or were reducing trade in foodstuffs due to the pressure of war.

A second problem was more worrying: inflation. This was initially counterbalanced by increased wages, but four months into the conflict, the needs of the front and the problems both the government of the Republic and the Generalitat faced in maintaining commercial agreements with other countries, began to make themselves felt on the home front.  It is not surprising then, that when the Soviet freighter Zirianin docked in Barcelona in mid-October, it received a rapturous welcome. Its cargo of butter, tinned meat, and condensed milk, and other foodstuffs was both a valuable sign of international solidarity and the end of Catalonia’s isolation, but also an initial boost to the food supply for the civilian population.

The black market and hoarding, which had already started, would drive the first increases in the Price of food. In turn, this led to protests by women in Barcelona, in both the markets and on the streets. The Generalitat responded by adopting a policy of rationing basic necessities, controlling production and distribution, and increasing imports from the Soviet unión and, to a lesser extent, from France. This did nothing to stop inflation, which, at the beginning of 1939, had hit a peak of 900 per cent compared to July 1936.

A significant decrease in the diet of the urban population was visible by early 1937, bringing with it tensions in the stores and in the streets. Rationing of bread, eggs, chickpeas, potatoes and four other basic products began in May 1937. The situation of the home front was exacerbated in the summer of 1937 by the arrival of refugees from other parts of the Republic, most of whom went to Barcelona and the surrounding industrial towns. Municipal governments were responsible for taking care of the refugees although, in theory, food was supplied by the Generalitat and the Republic. In mid-December, towns like Aiguafreda received kilos of meat to distribute to the refugees, as this receipt shows.