would anyone know where to find the scrap metal prices during WW2 , war as declared September 3 1939, so a good reference would be August and then the following months before rationing kicked in etc, and how soon this affected the USA prices
The dates when the various embargos kicked in might also have some impact on prices but probably not a great amount.
theres a jump of $2.34 from August to September. Oct it jumps to $19.05 . 1940 January its down to $16.38 Dec 7 1941 , Pearl Harbour would have to show another spike. thanks for that page I just checked this out while searching for 1941 P.H How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor | Robert Higgs
Basically an anti-Roosevelt diatribe. The underlying premise seems to be that other nations have a divinely mandated duty to provide Japan whatever it needs. That they are not allowed to decline to sell their own goods if they so choose. The US and other nations had traded with Japan for almost a century, since the Meiji Restoration, facilitating her rise as a modern industrial power. It was only Japan's own actions that upset the relationship.
The last thing the US needed was a war in the Pacific when we were trying to give every bit of help we could to the British. The idea that we deliberately provoked the Japanese is based on the "back door to war" theory which says that FDR wanted to get into a war in the Pacific so he could get into the European war. This, of course, required that Hitler adhere to agreements he never made about a "third party not currently engaged in war with any of the signatories" attacking one of them. The reality was that the Germans would be required to go to war against the US if the US attacked Japan first. Never happened.
