The blame has to ultimately be placed at the feet of the mercantilist policies. Once they restricted trade, they were responsible for the welfare of the Irish.

The blame has to ultimately be placed at the feet of the mercantilist policies. Once they restricted trade, they were responsible for the welfare of the Irish. So, these arguments that they made, that the Irish were responsible for overbreeding, were not a product of laissez-faire ideology, just their bastardized understanding of it.