By mid-May, a widespread food shortage hit Budapest, and the exorbitant prices of grain had already scavenged the last of the people's wealth from their pockets.
To stabilize order, The Republican Government had to start implementing a rationing system for food.
At this time in Budapest, vegetables and fruits had become luxury goods, and meat products had disappeared from ordinary people's tables, becoming exclusive to the Nobility.
What the government could provide was only the bare minimum of five hundred grams of dark bread per person per day, along with three hundred grams of potatoes and two hundred grams of corn.
With such limited supplies, the bureaucrats in the government still profited from them, and short weighing was just standard procedure.
