Index
Definitions of a famine vary widely, a famine has often been taken to refer to a regional starvation resulting in an increased rate of mortality. This definition is challenged by Alex de Waal who argues that increased mortality is a not necessarily a characteristic of a famine (de Waal, Famines that kill). Previously, people thought that famines occurred solely from a shortage of food resulting in arguments about a Food Availability Decline (FAD). But recently, due to the work of authors such as Amartya Sen (Nobel Laureate for Economics, 1998), the understanding of the underlying causes of famines has been expanded to include the unequal distribution of food. The Food Entitlement Decline argument emphasises the disproportionate suffering that the poor experience during a famine. The debate over Food Availability Decline versus Food Entitlement Decline has taken centre stage in the academic research of famines.
In this annotated bibliography, we have compiled a list of books written on the Irish Famine and sorted them based on the author's explanation for the severity of the Irish Famine compared to contemporary Europe. But for the purpose of this study, we can certainly say that increased mortality characterised the Irish Famine. Up to one-eighth of the population emigrated partially reducing the rate of mortality that resulted in the death of up to one million people (O Grada). The FAD argument of the cause of the high rate of mortality is based on the shortfall of the production of 12-15 million tons of potatoes annually. The exclusive dependence of the Irish economy on the cultivation of the potato resulted in the loss of jobs and the shortage of food. The FED argument of the case would look at the cause of the high mortality related to economical reasons. People were so reliant on the potato as food, and also as a cash crop that when it failed they were left with nothing. There were no other means to grow other types of crops, thus no money to procure food.
IA. Economy: The structure of the economy made it vulnerable to a natural disaster resulting in a shortage of food. In the case of the Great Famine, the adaptability and high yields of the potato made it suitable for the warm, wet climate of Ireland. A gradual transition away from milk and grains to a diet based primarily on the potato took place during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The wages of labourers were often paid in terms of small plots of land they were than able to grow their own potatoes on. The potato was also used as feed for Irish pigs. The concentration of resources in terms of labour, land, and capital on the exclusive cultivation of the potato left the Irish economy more vulnerable to the potato blight because of the lack of alternate crops.
1. Dickson, David. "Diet, Subsistence Crises and Hunger before the Great Irish Famine." Speech given at the International Conference on Hunger, New York University, Glucksman Ireland House, May 19-20, 1995.
In this paper, David Dickson traces the agricultural developments that led up to the supremacy of the potato in the Irish diet. Dickson refutes the idea that the potato developed from the colonial economy. Instead, he argues that the increase in international cereal prices, increasing butter exports, and the Irish climate led to the dominance of the potato. The decreasing wages of the labourers also led to the reliance on the potato for the lower class. The increase in productivity and in population also furthered social stratification adding to the Famine.
2. Galvin, Michael. Black Blight: The Great Famine 1845-1852. Midleton, Co. Cork: Litho Press.
Galvin bases his research on the accounts of the Famine from four parishes. A huge argument that he uses early in the book is that due to economic reasons there is a scarcity of food, as well as prohibitive prices to be able to survive in Ireland. That the people were not able to live off the land due to lack of jobs, and lack of provisions for food.
3. Guinnane, Timothy W. The Vanishing Irish: Households, Migration, and the Rural Economy in Ireland. New Jersey: Princeton University, 1997.
IB. Natural Disasters: The shortage of food resulted from crop failure due to a natural disaster. The Irish economy was heavily dependent on the potato in the years leading up to the Famine. Although Ireland produced a trade surplus enough to feed up to one million people, the domestic economy was based solely on potato production. The repeated failure of the potato crop from 1845 until 1850 due to the Phytophthora infestans, the potato blight, wiped out the staple of the Irish economy. Although estimates vary, the production of potatoes fell from 14.8 million tons in 1844 to 2-4 million tons of potatoes between 1846-9 (Daly, The Famine in Ireland). Approximately half of the potatoes produced were used for domestic human consumption meaning that Ireland was no longer able to feed itself, resulting in the Famine.
1.O Grada, Cormac. "The Great Irish Famine: Winners and Losers." Centre for Economic Research: Working Paper Series. April, 1997.publisher
Cormac O Grada refutes the claim that Amartya Sen's theory of entitlement failure can fully explain the Irish Famine in the same way that it is often used to explain modern famines. Although some individuals benefited from the price increases of the Famine, O Grada was unable to find any group that exploited the Famine out of the labourers, emigrants, landlords, farmers, traders, or moneylenders. Instead, he argues that there was little plenty in the midst of starvation caused by the unforseeable potato blight resulting in a shortfall between 1845-7 of twenty million tons of potatoes for human consumption alone.
2. Dyson, Tim. Population and Food: Global trends and Future prospects. publisher and date
In this book, Dyson focuses more on the FAD side of Famines. He works mainly with the cause of Famine due to crop failures and weather patterns. He is a bit ambiguous when discussing FED arguments. He would argue that the Irish famine resulted from potato blight. He felt that in order for a famine to occur it had to involve, " a decline in food availability--usually because of harvest failure--is a significant contributory casual factor to most famines"(74).
IC. Population: Malthus is the traditional proponent of the view that a famine results as a natural check on population growth. In Ireland, the increased dependence on the potato coincided with the rapid growth in the population of Ireland from 1750 until 1845. During this time, the population blossomed from around 2 million people to 8.2 million on the eve of the famine with an annual population growth rate around 1.3%. The rapid increase in the population out-stripped the ability of the Irish agricultural economy to produce enough food. The population growth forced the Irish economy to depend exclusively on the higher yields of the potato, making it vulnerable to the potato blight.
1. Connell, K.H. The Population of Ireland 1750-1845. Oxford: Clarendon, 1950.
2. Daly, Mary E. The Famine in Ireland. Dublin: Dundalgan Press, 1986.
Daly argues that the dependence on the potato was linked directly with the population explosion. "By ensuring good health the potato may have increased the Irish birth rate and reduced mortality levels"(8). The potato permitted farmers to fed larger numbers of people on a fewer acres of land.
3. Grigg, David. Population Growth and Agrarian Change. Cambridge: 1980.
4. McGregor, Patrick P. L. "Demographic Pressure and the Irish Famine: Malthus After Mokyr." Land Economics. Vol. 65. No. 3. August, 1989.
This article is written in response to Joel Mokyr's assertion that population pressure was not present in Pre-Famine Ireland (Mokyr, Why Ireland Starved). It is based on the mathematical calculation of population pressure taking into account the quality as well as quantity of land. His conclusion is that income per capita was decreasing prior to the Famine indicating a falling standard of living due to population pressure.
ID. Technology: The lack of agricultural technology prohibits high yields and industrialisation that insulate the economy from a shortage of food. Irish agriculture was often depicted as backward and farmers were portrayed as lazy by visiting, contemporary writers. Poverty forced farmers to compensate for the lack of tools and machinery by employing manual labour requiring large numbers of field hands. This resulted in a decrease of the overall agricultural productivity of Ireland making less food available in an already impoverished country.
1. Daly, Mary. "Farming and the Famine." In Famine 150: Commemorative Lecture Series edited by Cormac O Grada. Published by and date.
Mary Daly uses the accounts of foreign writers as the starting point for her inquiry into the farming habits of the Irish prior to the Famine. She finds evidence of the backward nature of Irish agricultural policy in the continued reliance on manual labour, the lack of drainage pipes, and the use of the wooden plow instead of the more effective iron ones. The lack of technology probably resulting from the general poverty of the island is compensated for by heavy manual labour that is contrary to the stereotype of the lazy Irish farmer. In this article, Daly does not draw any conclusions about the significance of the lack of technology.
Against
1. O Grada, Cormac. "Poverty, population, and agriculture, 1801-1845." In A New History of Ireland. Edited by Vaughan. Clarendon Press: London. 1989.
Cormac O Grada argues that the level exports indicate expanding commercialisation that resulted from integration in the British economy.
2. Solar, P. M. "Agricultural productivity and Economic Development in Ireland and Scotland in the Early nineteenth Century." In Ireland and Scotland, 1600-1850: Parallels and Contrasts in Economic and Social Development. Edited by T M Devine and D. Dickson. Edinburgh: John Donald.
IE. Migration: Although emigration increased dramatically during the Famine, Ireland has always had a high rate of emigration. Higher wages and more job opportunities in the United States and England depleted the number of young men in Ireland. The loss of professional and the most able-bodied people led to a decrease in the productivity of the remaining population mostly made up of children and the elderly. The less productive population was ill-equipped to deal with the shock of the Famine.
1. Mokyr, Joel. O Grada, Cormac. "Emigration and Poverty in Prefamine Ireland." Explorations in Economic History. Vol. 19 No. 3. July, 1982.
Joel Mokyr and Cormac O Grada demonstrate that emigration for the fifty years prior to the Famine had a substantial impact on Irish society. The prime age of young male emigrants in search of a better lifestyle seems to have reduced the income per capita of those left behind in Ireland. This may have resulted in a self-enforcing feedback further lowering the prosperity on the island, and thus propelling further emigration.
2.Ellis, Eilish. Emigrants from Ireland, 1847-1852: State Aided Emigration Schemes from Crown Estates in Ireland. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1983.
3. Fitzpatrick, David. Irish Emigration 1801-1921. Dublin: Dundalgen Press, 1984.
4. Adams, William Forbes Ph.D. Ireland and Irish Emigration to the New World: From 1815 to the famine. Dublin: Criterion, 1994.
IF. Politics: Absentee landlords and the land tenure system decreased the economic activity of Ireland. The higher yields of the potato compared to previous staples such as oats and grains permitted the landlords to subdivide their plots to maximise profits from rent. The smaller plots usually less than ten acres, prevented labourers from switching crops after the initial potato blight in 1845 because they would have been unable to produce sufficient quantities of food. This led to the abandonment of farms by labourers in search of food and employment in the public works. The abandonment of the farms further amplified the food shortage by leaving the fields unplanted.
1. Dufferin, Lord. Irish Emigration and the Tenure of Land in Ireland. London:1867.
2. Stevenson, John. Popular Disturbances in England 1700-1832. New York:Longman, 1992. A brief section of the novel deals with Britain's role to Ireland before the famine, and the perception of the famine and their stance in it.
3. Poirteir, Cathal. The Great Irish Famine. Mercier Press, 1995.
4. Edwards, Dudley R. and T. Desmond Williams. The Great Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52. Browne and Nolan, 1956.
IG. Exporters/Importers: The food shortage that resulted from the collapse of the domestic agriculture was amplified by the failure of the market to import sufficient quantities of food. Prior to the Famine, Irish agriculture produced a surplus of around one million tons of potatoes and 450,000 tons of grain annually (estimates vary) that were exported to England(O Grada, 1989, p. 122). The commercialisation of the Irish economy indicates its integration into the world economy(O Grada, 1989, p. 122).
1. Daly, Mary. The Famine in Ireland. Dublin: Dundalgan Press, 1986
The rising prices in Ireland should have induced local merchants to import more food. Combined with the high rates of unemployment, Mary Daly documents how the less severe food shortage on the Continent was able to divert food imports from Ireland because of the shorter distance to transport. This prevented price mechanisms from distributing the available food equally among nations, exacerbating the shortage of food in Ireland. It was not until the British government spent £1.7 million on soup kitchens that corn imports increased dramatically.
IIA. Economy: Amartya Sen is the primary proponent of the view that social stratification causes the poor to be unable to acquire enough food. The Irish economy prior to the famine centred mainly on potato production for domestic consumption. The increasing price of grains after the Napoleonic Wars led to the commercialisation of farming in terms of increasing production of cash crops and domesticated animals. In addition to decimating the food supply, the potato blight destroyed the Irish economy because it was so heavily dependent on agriculture. The job market withered, undermining the ability of farmers and labourers to work in order to earn money. Unable to work, farmers and landless labourers could no longer acquire food amplifying the problems caused by the crop failure.
1. Daly, Mary E. The Famine in Ireland. Dublin: Dundalgan Press, 1986.
Mary Daly illustrates how the economic upheaval of the Famine caused a lack of jobs for most of the population. She argues that the poverty of the famine was caused by the shortage of jobs and not the scarcity of food. The shortage of money combined with the rising prices of food caused the starvation and the spread of disease during the Famine.
2. Mokyr, Joel. Why Ireland Starved. London: 1983.
3. Gray, Tony. The Lost Years: The Emergency in Ireland 1839-45. Little Brown and Company, 1997.
4. Lee, Joseph. The Modernisation of Irish Society 1848-1918. Gill and MacMillan, 1989.
IIB. Politics: The nature of colonialism results in exploitation and underdevelopment of the economy that makes it vulnerable to famines. During the Irish Famine, grain and cattle continued to be exported to Britain to pay for rent that resulted from the system of absentee landlords. During the seventeenth century, British policy of carving up Ireland into plantations, rewarding loyalty to the Crown, impoverished the island and encouraged rapid population growth. The landlords displaced the ruling aristocracy and expanded the large, landless class to exploit them for cheap labour. The poverty of Ireland persisted through the nineteenth century creating the conditions for the Famine.
1. Dowley, Leslie J. "The Potato and Late Blight in Ireland." In Famine 150 Commemorative Lecture Series. Edited by Cormac O Grada. Publisher and date
Leslie Dowley argues that some British policies towards Ireland such as the Penal Laws and Trade Restrictions from 1700-1775 decreased economic activity on the island. Exploitation under the colonial system caused an increased use of marginal land by the native Irish. (Unfinished).
2. Woodham-Smith, Cecil. The Great Famine
3. Percival, John. The Great Famine: Ireland's Potato Famine 1845-1851. BBC Books, 1995.
4. Young, Liz. Spaces for Famine: A Comparative Geographical Analysis of Famine in Ireland and the Highlands in the 1840s. Speech given at the International Conference on Hunger, New York University, Glucksman Ireland House, May 19-20, 1995.
Liz Young argues that a space of vulnerability for a famine was created by the changing nature of the political economy, empowerment and entitlement. The rapid rate of British industrialisation and militarization required a corresponding expansion and commercialisation of Irish agriculture to feed the growing workforce. The need for labour contributed to the rising fertility and promoted population expansion in Ireland until the 1830s. Increasing population pressure allowed landlords to subdivide plots to maximise profits from rent. The domestic production of textiles and alcohol provided a supplemental income allowing the labourers to live on these smaller plots. Since the 1820s the removal of tariffs lowered prices of textiles and alcohol produced by foreign factories forcing the domestic production of these goods out of the market. This caused a decline in the entitlements of the poor that coincided with the shift to laissez faire ideology and resistance to massive relief programs.
IIC. Export/Import: The industrialisation of England required the importation of food from the British empire. Because capitalism favours products over raw materials, Britain benefited economically at the cost of its colonies such as Ireland. By forcing its colonies to exclusively trade with its companies, Britain also limited Ireland's foreign trade and expansion. Ireland's lack of purchasing power and of networks of previous foreign trade failed to import ample food when its crops failed.
1. Daly, Mary E. The Famine in Ireland. Dublin: Dundalgen Press, 1986.
There are enough references in this paper to support the side that there were more exports going out of Ireland than imports coming in. This was a major problem. "Many saw government interference in the food market as desirable to produce the maximum level of supplies. The New Irish Chief Secretary, Henry Labouchere, wrote to Daniel O'Connell that 'the great object at this moment appears to me to be to protect the trade of food'"(73). This could also be referenced under Politics.
Against
1. O Grada, Cormac. "The Great Famine and other famines." In Famine 150 Commemorative Lecture Series. Edited by Cormac O Grada. Publisher and Date
In this article, Cormac O Grada argues that even if the government had banned exports without damaging free market imports that it would not have been enough to significantly affected the Famine. From the initial crop failure in 1845 until the massive corn imports in 1847, only 430,000 tons of grain were exported from Ireland. This would only have made up one-seventh of the shortfall caused by the potato blight. The other major export of Ireland during the Famine was livestock which was prohibitively expensive for the poor prior to 1845, so they would have been unable to purchase it regardless of export barriers.
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