Sharing Scarcity: Rationing and Price Subsidisation of Tea in A ustralia, 1942–55

A ustralians were the world's second highest consumers of tea per capita during the 1930s. After losing access to its main supplier, the D utch East Indies, with the outbreak of the P acific W ar, the C ommonwealth of A ustralia established a T ea C ontrol B oard and later a coupon‐based tea rationing scheme. Drawing upon archival sources, this article examines the regulation of the supply of tea in A ustralia until 1955. Rationing delivered reduced amounts of tea to A ustralians at heavily discounted prices, maintaining a trend towards reduced tea consumption that had begun in the early 1930s.