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The Great Irish Famine is less about potato blight and more about an economic system that saw the majority of crops grown during famine exported for profit, whi

The Great Irish Famine is less about potato blight and more about an economic system that saw the majority of crops grown during famine exported for profit, while those who tilled the soil were forced to rely on a single monoculture crop to sustain themselves (the potato).

NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Irish merchants and farmers had complained and demonstrated against the export ban and closure of ports during a previous famine as prices had plummeted. It was far more the over dependence on one variety and potatoes being such a large part of diet from tiny farms being so common. Presumably from having been divided too many times on inheritance.
- darpa_escapee 8y ago
  > It was far more the over dependence on one variety and potatoes being such a large part of diet from tiny farms being so common. Presumably from having been divided too many times on inheritance. Tenant farmers, by virtue of their tenancy, didn't inherit land that could be subdivided. Absentee landlords didn't manage their Irish properties directly, and had middlemen collect rent for them. Middlemen chose to subdivide properties in order to extract more revenue, leaving only small parcels for tenant farmers to feed themselves from. The Wikipedia article[1] does a surprisingly good job of covering the causes of the famine: > The middlemen leased large tracts of land from the landlords on long leases with fixed rents, which they sublet as they saw fit. They would split a holding into smaller and smaller parcels so as to increase the amount of rent they could obtain. >... > The 1841 census showed a population of just over eight million. Two-thirds of those depended on agriculture for their survival, but they rarely received a working wage. They had to work for their landlords in return for the patch of land they needed to grow enough food for their own families. This was the system which forced Ireland and its peasantry into monoculture, since only the potato could be grown in sufficient quantity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Causes_and_contributing_factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Causes_...

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

Irish merchants and farmers had complained and demonstrated against the export ban and closure of ports during a previous famine as prices had plummeted. It was far more the over dependence on one variety and potatoes being such a large part of diet from tiny farms being so common. Presumably from having been divided too many times on inheritance.

darpa_escapee 8y ago
> It was far more the over dependence on one variety and potatoes being such a large part of diet from tiny farms being so common. Presumably from having been divided too many times on inheritance. Tenant farmers, by virtue of their tenancy, didn't inherit land that could be subdivided. Absentee landlords didn't manage their Irish properties directly, and had middlemen collect rent for them. Middlemen chose to subdivide properties in order to extract more revenue, leaving only small parcels for tenant farmers to feed themselves from. The Wikipedia article[1] does a surprisingly good job of covering the causes of the famine: > The middlemen leased large tracts of land from the landlords on long leases with fixed rents, which they sublet as they saw fit. They would split a holding into smaller and smaller parcels so as to increase the amount of rent they could obtain. >... > The 1841 census showed a population of just over eight million. Two-thirds of those depended on agriculture for their survival, but they rarely received a working wage. They had to work for their landlords in return for the patch of land they needed to grow enough food for their own families. This was the system which forced Ireland and its peasantry into monoculture, since only the potato could be grown in sufficient quantity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Causes_and_contributing_factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Causes_...