I’m working on a World War Two Food History journal and have been stumped by what herbs and spices were greatly affected by Germany’s u-boats. I can only think of cinnamon so far (to the US), and I don’t even know the specific type or where it’s located either. I would greatly appreciate the assistance in this matter.
If possible can the location of the herb/spice be mentioned, as well as to which country it would have been shipped to?
Apologies for the non answer - I am on holiday. But some starter advice. Have you referred to the Hmso civilian series? It's usually the best place to start. The food volumes by Hammond I think are available on the interweb.
However I suspect the specifics of what spices were imported may not be included in either of the 3 food series. In fact i can't think I have ever seen reference to imports of spice in any reference book.
The other book to try (and again I think it's open source on the Internet) is Fighting with Figures which may go into breakdowns of imports but again I suspect the volumes of spices imported compared to Meat, cereals and fats etc will be so small as to not register on the imports and shipping statistics.
Likewise to my knowledge spices were not on any rationing scheme. But that of course was the point. Rationing was intended for staple food stuff that could be GARUNTEED by the government. Luxury food stuffs were available as and when - again limiting documentary stats. And I have never seen any spice import policy guidance, which isn't to say it doesn't exist.
Sorry.
Edit. It's also important to remember that import, shipping and FX controls are far more important than losses from U boats in the scheme of foodstuff availability. Combat losses are actually only a small part of the logistics puzzle. While it would be wrong to say Uboat losses had no impact on food availability. It certainly was dwarfed by the importance of war material movements. Bolero troop movements for example were some of the major drivers of UK food shipping availability.