5C. The Famine Flashcards
What were the causes of the Famine?
- Blight - September 1845
- Absentee landlordism
- Cottier class
- Monoculture potato farming
How did absenteeism become commonplace in Ireland before the Famine?
Most land in Ireland owned by absentee landlords as a result of plantation and Penal Laws
- Middlemen managed the land by purchasing it on long leases, often for over 21 years on 1000 acres or more, in return for a regular rent sent to the absentee landlord in the cities / Britain
- The middleman then subdivided the land and rented it out to other people, who then became tenant farmers to the middleman
This was convenient for the landlord, as they received a regular income for no work at all.
Why was absenteeism problematic for Ireland’s land system?
To maximise profits, the middleman would continually subdivide land into even smaller plots. This extended when tenant farmers would rent out sections of their plots to cottiers in return for a portion of their crop / labour.
- Continual subdivision increased rent prices, therefore resulting in even smaller plots being rented due to price
- Extending holdings became very expensive due to the need to acquire further leases, preventing consolidation of land
- No landlord investment given to plots - stagnating productivity
This left a stagnant and vulnerable agricultural system
How dependent was Ireland on agriculture for its livelihoods before the Famine?
- By 1841, over 2/3 of the population were dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods
How many cottiers were there in Ireland by the 1840s?
more than 300,000
According to an 1841 survey, what percentage of holdings in Ireland were over 30 acres?
7%
According to an 1841 survey, what percentage of holdings in Ireland were under 5 acres?
45%
According to an 1841 survey, what percentage of holdings in Connacht were under 5 acres?
64%
Why was the existence of a cottier class a cause for the Famine?
Cottiers were tenant farmers who owned less than 5 acres of land (usually between 1 and 3)
- Small holdings meant that every inch of available land would be farmed, leading to soil exhaustion.
- The increased demand for land as a result of a rapidly expanding population pushed plots to become even smaller and previously considered unusable land to be farmed.
- Poor efficiency led to a lack of surplus to help weather shortages - living from harvest to harvest / hand-to-mouth existence.
How important was the potato to Irish agriculture before the Famine?
Before the Famine, potatoes accounted for more than 1/5 of Ireland’s total agricultural output
Why did monoculture farming develop in Ireland before the Famine?
- Premium on land prevented diversification of crop types, resulting in monoculture farming
What are the positive qualities of the potato that made it suitable for monoculture farming?
- Significantly higher yields compared to grain crops - ‘Lumper’ potato produced 6-8 tonnes per acre
- Families consumed 10-15 lb per day
- High nutritional value - combined with milk to meet most nutritional requirements
What major drawback did potatoes have which increased risk of Famine?
Highly perishable - could not be stored
This increased dependence on each harvest to meet increasing demand
When did blight arrive in Ireland?
July 1845 - spread through air and rain through July rainy spells
How much of the potato harvest was lost in 1845?
1/3
How much of the potato harvest was lost in 1846?
3/4
How much of the potato harvest was lost in 1847?
average harvest levels
How much of the potato harvest was lost in 1848?
1/3
What were the impacts of the Famine on the populace?
1 million people died from starvation and associated diseases such as typhus and relapsing fever.
1 million emigrated Ireland to Britain and North America
Decline of cottier class:
- 1845 = 300,000
- 1851 = 62,000
Population declined by 20% and still has yet to reach pre-famine levels
What were the effects of the Famine on numbers of Irish speakers?
Number of Gaelic speakers declined significantly, as the majority of speakers were cottiers in rural communities on the west coast of Ireland.
- Before 1845 = 3-4 million speakers
- 1851 Survey = 1.8 million speakers
What were the effects of the Famine on land distribution?
Number of large farms over 35 acres:
- 1845 = 277,000
- 1851 = 314,000
This increased due to the Gregory clause of the Irish Poor Law Extension Act 1947 and the Encumbered Estates Act 1849
This resulted in increased consolidation of land, which increased the age of marriage in order to maintain land size.
Erosion of the cottier class promoted greater obedience to the Church, and allowed the reforms of the ‘devotional revolution’ to develop, also helped by the increased affluence of the larger landholders.
What were the effects of the Famine on agricultural production?
Tillage farming replaced with open pasture and cattle grazing, because:
- Landowners wanted to evict poor tenants once they became responsible for relief after 1947
- Grazing cattle was a profitable alternative to labour-dependent tillage
Within 25 years of the Famine, farmers saw their incomes increase by 2/3
This exposed the weaknesses of the previous agricultural system and allowed change towards a much stronger one with greater financial benefit.
Which landlord was particularly generous in assisting their tenants to escape the Famine?
In 1847, the agents of Lord Palmerston chartered nine ships to carry 2,000 of his tenants from Sligo to Canada, and another from Liverpool that carried another 480.
What was the effect of the Encumbered Estates Act 1849?
- Granted greater legal justification for eviction
- Encouraged the sale of bankrupt estates to more successful landowners
Established the Encumbered Estates Court whose three commissioners were empowered to enforce a sale of any land burdened with debts exceeding its annual rental income
- The new legal owner then had legal justification to do what they liked with the purchase
How many acres had been sold through the Encumbered Estates Courts by 1859?
By 1859, five million acres worth £21 million had been sold through the court
How did Peel’s government respond to the Famine?
- Scientific commission established
- Relief Programme
- Relief Commission
- Repeal of Corn Laws
What were the features of the Scientific Commission established under Peel in 1845?
- Under the direction of Dr Lyon Playfair
- Aimed to ascertain the nature of the blight and means of preventing its spread → published its report on 15th November
- Failed to discover that the blight was a fungal disease, making all proposed solutions useless
- Recommended solutions - sprinkling seed with hydrochloric acid, treating diseased crops with chloric acid, manganese and salt - may have done more harm than good, if implemented → ingredients not available
What did Peel’s Relief Programme initiate?
£100,000 of Indian corn bought in November 1845
- Hoped to prevent soaring food prices and allow the Irish to purchase food at affordable cost
What were the limitations of Peel’s Relief Programme?
- Indian corn unfamiliar to Irish → often undercooked, causing diarrhoea
- Corn lacked vitamins of potato diet (vitamin C) leading to increased rates of scurvy
- £100,000 of corn not adequate to replace the lost £3.5 million worth of potatoes
What did the Relief Commission initate?
- Set up a programme of public works, funded up to 2/3 by government grants and supplemented by private donations
- Provided food and work for 140,000 people at a time
How much money did Peel’s government spend on treating the Famine in 1845-6?
Over £365,000
It also offered a similar sum in loans
Why did Peel repeal the Corn Laws?
1815 Corn Laws implemented after the Napoleonic wars to maintain high prices on English corn as European countries opened their markets
Repealing the Corn Laws would hopefully create a wider market in Britain for Irish corn, to help support the relief of the country and restructuring of Irish agriculture.
Why was the repeal of the Corn Laws unsuccessful in alleviating the Famine?
- Ireland had enough reserves of other products (meat, maize, dairy) to theoretically feed the population, but the poorest members of society had no money with which to buy food, regardless of its affordability.
- Political impact of repeal caused his government to fall from power to a new administration under Lord John Russel in 1846
What were the key features of Russel’s response to the Famine?
- Lasseiz-faire policy
- January 1847 Temporary Relief of Destitute Persons Act (soup kitchens)
- 1847 Irish Poor Law Extension Act and Irish Poor Law Amendment Act
- End to Indian Corn and soup kitchens by October 1847
Which particular thinkers influenced the attitudes of Russel and Trevelyan?
Russel, Charles Trevelyan (Permanent Secretary at the Treasury) and Charles Wood (Chancellor of the Exchequer) were influenced by :
- Adam Smith - suggested economic ideas of free trade and a lasseiz-faire economic strategy
- Thomas Malthus - a population theorist who had written extensively about Ireland, believing that it was vastly overpopulated and due for tragedy to thin out population size.
To what value had the costs of public works increased to at the start of 1847?
Over £30,000 a day
What did the January 1847 Temporary Relief of Destitute Persons Act allowed for?
The Act allowed the creation of government-sponsored soup kitchens in Ireland.
Though the Act did increase the number of soup kitchens in Ireland, such kitchens had already been established by the private endeavours of the Society of Friends.
How successful was the Society of Friends in Ireland?
- Opened their first soup kitchen in 1846 and were well established in providing aid in Ireland
- Within days of opening in Waterford on 21 November 1846, their kitchen provided free soup and bread to over 180 people
- This quickly rose to more than 600 within a fortnight, and cost the society £6.75 a week.
What were the changes made by the 1847 Irish Poor Law Extension Act and Irish Poor Law Amendment Act?
- Irish men and women had a legal right to relief - (previously this had been at the discretion of the Poor Law Guardians)
- Relief could be administered outside of the workhouse if the workhouse was full / infected - (previously, only “indoor relief” was allowed)
- Gregory clause
- Separate Irish Poor Law Commission established, distinct from the English Poor Law Commission
What was the ‘Gregory Clause’ included in the 1847 Irish Poor Law Extension Act and Irish Poor Law Amendment Act?
Anyone occupying more than a quarter of an acre of land who refused to give up their possession was not deemed destitute, and thus would not be eligible for relief paid by the Poor Rate.
This clause was named after the prominent MP for Dublin, Sir William Gregory, who demanded such a provision.
What were the effects of the 1847 Irish Poor Law Extension Act and Irish Poor Law Amendment Act?
- By declaring relief to be a statutory right rather than a one-off need, obligation was transferred to existing Poor Law officials rather than the British Government.
- Establishing a separate Irish Poor Law Commission absolved the British Government of the burden and cost of famine relief.
How many people were being maintained in Ireland’s workhouses by 1849?
932,000
How much money was spent in poor relief in 1847 alone?
£1.7 million
How did the establishment of a separate Irish Poor Law Commission affect taxes in Ireland?
After the 1847 Irish Poor Law Extension Act and Irish Poor Law Amendment Act, money for poor relief had to be found from Irish taxpayers alone.
In many counties in Ireland, the Poor Rate increased to 10-12 shillings
What was the effect of the Gregory Clause?
As fewer landholding tenants were eligible for relief, landowners undertook greater evictions of tenants.
This was incentivised by a transition towards pasture grazing instead of labour-intensive tillage.
How many food vessels left Ireland with cargoes of foodstuffs to ports in Britain in 1847?
4,000
How many livestock were transported from Ireland to Britain between 1846 and 1850?
3 million
Why was food allowed to be transported from Ireland during the Famine?
- Ireland saw a net import of food during the Famine, but continued to export for higher profits abroad (much of Europe also had food shortage)
- Economic concept of free trade dominant within British politicians at the time
- Closing ports, the usual practice in times of food scarcity, was considered too interventionist and would affect wider food markets leading to possible economic downturn in England.
What are the major criticisms of Trevelyan’s management of the Famine?
- Made relief efforts as minimal as possible so as to encourage the Irish to look after themselves
- Made rules concerning receival of relief punitive, and added stipulations that made the system difficult for those seeking assistance
- Some of these rules, such as paying half-starved labourers by piecemeal, were highly callous
- Ended government soup kitchen provision and sale of government bought cornmeal (Peel’s Indian corn) by October 1847
Why was Trevelyan so callous in his management of relief in Ireland?
- Designed strict rulings to deter all but the most destitute - feared that Irish would become dependent on relief (dominant trend in 19th-Century British politics)
- Believed in the inherent ‘idleness’ of the Irish
What criticisms exist to the nationalist interpretation that the British government was negligent in their response to the Famine?
- British spent more than £10 million to tackle the emergency - significant sum of money!
- Weak transport system undermined relief provision
What role did Mitchell play in the Famine?
John Mitchel was a staff journalist who wrote for the Irish nationalist newspaper The Nation after 1845.
He took an increasingly hostile to British rule throughout the Famine → shaped the traditional nationalist rhetoric against Trevelyan
Transported to Bermuda as a sentence for instigating the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848
