Shortages

Quotations:

 “Soldiers require far more wool than civilians—some say four times as much. . .”    

Dorothy M. Zimmern, “The Wool Trade in War Time”, The Economic Journal, Vol. 28, No. 109 (Mar., 1918), pp. 7-29. (p.13)

“[They] left the Country strewed with Guns hats coats—waggons―& full ones. Cars loaded with army stores—million of money will not replace these things—Such retreats must be nearly as disastrous to them as lost battles—it must demoralize the men & as well diminish their means of war. . . .”

Elizabeth Blair Lee to her husband, 18 March 1862, describing the Confederate army's retreat after its victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run. in Wartime Washington, 112

Intro:

Shortages of wool occurred for many reasons. The size of an army in wartime was usually many times greater than in peacetime, and an army at war was hard on its clothes. For durability, military textiles were often heavier than those for civilians: 20 ounces and up per yard of 56-inch-wide serge for enlisted men's uniform cloth; 28 ounces and up for overcoats, while civilian cloth was routinely four to ten ounces lighter, requiring less wool per yard. Armies on long marches, or in retreat, often jettisoned anything that weighed them down or impeded their flight. Replacements needed to be immediately available, with more in the pipeline. And when wars lasted for years, they required manpower, which ate away at the labour supply not only of industry, but of the agricultural base that supplied it. Long supply chains—which wool epitomized—faced disruption or obstruction, or simply competing priorities.

ADD IMAGE: Caption: William Simpson, Lithograph, 1855. "Huts and Warm Clothing for the Army."  

(Library of Congress - large tiff available - http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004672575/)

British soldiers during the Crimean War haul clothing and other supplies to winter camp. Sheepskins were a sought-after aid to warmth and comfort in many wars, adding to stress on wool supplies. The Australian "Digger's Vest" of World War I and the U.S. Army Air Force's Sheepskin lined flying suit, worn by bomber crews during World War II, are just two examples.

With the growth of sheep pastoralism in Australia and New Zealand in the early to mid nineteenth century, and a few decades later, South Africa and India, the British Empire had its own built-in supplies. Even so, the wool had to be transported across oceans. Britain’s control of much of the world’s apparel wool supplies gave them and their allies a vital edge, particularly during the two cataclysmic world wars of the twentieth century. The stockpiles built up in the wool-growing Dominions, owned but not called upon by Britain, also kept supplies out of neutral and enemy mills.

For the have-not nations, substitutes and adulterants were one answer. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, inventors in the textile industries looked for ways to extend or replace wool - a task that took on greater importance in wartime.