American cities and towns are filled with the grandchildren of immigrants who flocked to our shores from around the world. It was during the 1840s, however, that the first great wave of immigrants set forth across the Atlantic from England, Germany and Ireland, braving an arduous journey for religious or political freedom -- or for economic opportunity. In one country, Ireland, about 15% of the population emigrated. Long before the great famine devastated Ireland during the l840s,the Irish had been under the domination of the British. During earlier periods of subjection, English rulers -- Henry II, Elizabeth I, and Cromwell -- confiscated provinces in Ireland to reward their followers and pay off debts. Many Irish suddenly became landless. With the passage of the Penal Laws in 1695, Irish were not only reduced to second-class citizenship, but were forbidden to purchase any land. Large Catholic estates were broken up, reducing acreage to smaller and smaller lots. Deprived of their land, forced to live from hand to mouth in mud huts on small, often barren lots the Irish became dependent upon a crop which required little acreage and a minimum of good soil: the potato. The Irish peasantry's dependence on the potato set the stage for the famine which began in 1845.
Absentee land ownership was very common. Approximately 1200 non-Irish, mostly living in England, owned most of the land. Farms were usually leased from these owners, but, unlike today's leases, they could be revoked at the whim of the landlord. Farms were allowed to pass down from one generation to another -- but only if the landlord approved. With no sense of ownership or pride in the land, little care was paid to conservation, and land was often overfarmed. In addition, all improvements, such as buildings, reverted to the landlord when the lease ended, thus discouraging any attempts to better the property.
The economist John Stuart Mill commented, "In Ireland, the whole agricultural population can be evicted by the mere will of the landlord, whether at the expiration of the lease, or, in the far more common case, of their having no lease."
Several years before the famine, the Devon Commission, setup by the British Parliament, concluded that the underlying problem in Ireland was the antagonism between tenant and landlord. As population increased, placing land in greater demand, landlords raised rents, which were already double that of comparable land in England. In order to pay the rent, the tenant had to subdivide the property, a system known as conacre.
The famine lasted several years. One and a half million peasants died and another million emigrated to the United States and England. Attempts to aid the Irish, such as those by the United States, were of little avail. At the height of the catastrophe, the British withdrew all benefits to anyone who owned over one quarter of an acre -- which included most Irish. The exodus was on.
Some critics of the day saw a confirmation of the Malthusian doctrine in the Irish situation. (Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist of the late 18th century whose theories on population have been debated ever since). His basic doctrine was that as people reproduce at a faster pace than they can possibly increase their food supply their food supply, and that this was the primary cause of poverty.
Had the Irish population been smaller, it was claimed, the famine would have been less severe. However, even when the famine was at its worst, food was being shipped out of Ireland to England. The Irish did not lack food; they lacked buying power. Even during the famine, rent paid to an absentee landlord represented a substantial portion of a tenant's savings or crop. Past accumulations could have enabled the peasant to purchase food that was being exported, but the system of land ownership prevented this. The simple fact was that most of the Irish had no money to pay for food. To keep what land they had, they were forced to pay their landlords almost all the food they could grow.
Rents had to be paid whether crops were good or not. Since potato crops had failed, Irish farmers had neither their own potatoes to eat nor money from potato sales with which to buy bread or other food.
Without it, the Irish peasants would starve. Citing the earth's importance -- and overriding all other considerations -- the Devon Commission stated, "The one absorbing feeling is that the possession of land stifles all others and extinguishes the plainest principles of humanity." And so the Irish sailed away from the land of their birth.
Background Questions:
- What British action resulted in the loss of many of the Irish people's land?
- Describe Irish leasing under the British.
- What were the findings of the Devon Commission?
- How was the Malthusian doctrine used to confirm and validate the famine?
- How did the system of land ownership foster the famine?
- What are some reasons for famines today in different parts of the world? Cite examples.