WEBVTT - Part Two: That Time Britain Did A Genocide in Ireland 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:10.040 We returned the bastards in England. No, the verse from 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.079 that's my terrible English accent. Boy, we are both neither 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.160 of us are very good at this. I remember now 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.920 being reminded Island calling somebody a ball bag, how much better? 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.080 Garrett from the Dollar Piss and doing an English accent 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.000 is an Irish name. I think his mom is actually 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.440 English if I'm remembering the Dollarp episode that his mom 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.320 came on um or at least ethnically. I have a 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.480 friend who's ethnically British. It's a weird situation. His parents 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:42.400 you don't meet any of many of those, No, but 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.199 he has never been outside of the United States, was 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.640 born and raised here. But his parents are both English 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.720 who came here in like they're late twenties. So he 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.040 it's not many people like that. It's weird because he 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.480 doesn't have like he grew up in Texas, so he 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.600 like talks like most other Texas well, except for every 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:01.640 now in and he'll say like he doesn't say bathroom. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.600 He says bathroom like there's there's all there's these little 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.680 bits where it's like, oh, I can tell that you, Like, 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:11.679 we're raised by somebody who didn't speak Texan. Yeah, he 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.920 exclusively drove sobs most of the time that I knew 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.440 when we were younger. His dad had like thirty of 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.200 them taken apart on his lot. That's amazing. He's got 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.240 a jeep. Now. Last time, gare H Wilkerson, I think 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.000 that's his last name, but he's very Northern Irish, so 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.880 he would say stuff like ball bag. I was like, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.400 I was like, dude, I love your sling. I got 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.360 a lot of ship rightfully, So for for by the 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.680 last time I did an Irish accent on this show. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.560 But I will say some of my favorite moments in Ireland, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.320 and I had another version of this in England is 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.920 like you get drunk with your friends and you try 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.880 each other's accents on. And the particular thing one of 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.360 my buddies who is uh Irish but grew up in 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.240 England for reason, and that we will be talking about 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.360 in this episode because that that happens to a lot 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.720 of people in this period. There's a um But the 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.000 thing that he couldn't get over was the differences in 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.280 how we pronounced banana. So there was like a long 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.080 drunken conversation that would just be me saying banana too, 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.440 and then then him being like banana because we were 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.880 making fun of how the others. Yes, I could not 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:27.960 get over the banana, um banana. One of the real 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.760 joys of hanging out with people who speak English but 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.320 are not from the United States is making fun of 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.120 how you each pronounced the same words differently. Yeah. I 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.320 remember I was trying to like tell one of my 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.760 like my my friend who's like, you know, born and 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.359 raised in London, but they're Punjabi Indian, you know, and 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:52.240 so obviously that's quite a quite a ride situation boys, right, Yeah, 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.840 but I kept saying, like why your spell stuff like that, 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.799 like what's this you for? Like, what's wrong this? Yeah? 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.080 He was like he goes just as calm in the 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.360 most British way possible. He was just like, yo, it's interesting, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.519 how like you keep telling me that we're spelling things wrong. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.720 But the language is called English because it's from England. 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:24.359 And I was like, touche, touche, touche, I have no comeback, 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.200 and he just said, in the most British just as 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.600 a matter of fact ly, like, well, it's called English 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.520 because it's from England. And one of the things that 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.079 was always really interesting to me, is you know where 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.680 I grew up for a decent chunk of my like adolescence. Um, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.440 the school that I went to in North Texas had 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.760 a really high population of people from the Indian subcontinent 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.360 because like their parents worked for Texas Instruments or for 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.960 Raytheon or something, um, and so they were people most 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.320 of them had been born in India but had come 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.400 over here pretty young, and they had learned English from Americans. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.440 And then I went over to India where the people 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.120 that I was talking do who spoke English had learned 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.200 English from British people generally, and so and it's really 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.440 it's interesting, like how the how how differently people say 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.880 especially since as an American, like most of your contact 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:13.840 with people who speak English is the second language is 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.679 people who learned it from an American And it really 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.600 is like a different beast. And there's different types of like, um, 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.680 different idioms that people pick up and stuff, as as 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.320 as a second language speaker when they get taught, you 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:26.960 know by one of the when he picked me up, 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:28.880 when he picked us up from an airport, he was like, hey, 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:30.960 I hadn't seen him. He was like, hey, you know 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.720 look look, look we're we're we're two brothers were Asian dudes. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.280 I was like, all right, I walked by them dudes 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.400 three times because I'm like, hey, man, you said you 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.080 was Asian. Yeah, because we yeah, we use it differently 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.120 than they do over Yeah. He was like, oh yeah, 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.599 he goes, he goes. Yeah. Americans for some reason don't 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.080 think India is a part of Asia. Yeah, which is weird, 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.760 but didn't. Yeah. You look at a map and it's like, well, yeah, 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.960 it's it's right in there. It's just the most British 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.760 just like condescend but nice way to say. Yeah, well 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.640 because India is a part of Asia. Yeah, because it's 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.279 like you know how they share that giant land border 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:14.400 with China. Yeah, Asia, Like oh yeah, yeah, I guess, 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.960 I guess, I guess you're right. Yeah yeah right whatever 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.520 you guys are saying that wrong, Okay, So yeah, anyway, 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.120 let's talk about this horrible crime against humanity, um, the 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:29.800 coming of the blight. This this potato mold and it's airborne, 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.320 Like this is a nasty fucker to hit you. And 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.000 now there's ways to deal with these now, Like I 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.520 think it's a copper sulfate solution that you can spray 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:39.880 on your tubers and stuff. There's people have like developed 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.719 ways since and obviously one of the better ways to 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.479 deal with it is to grow more than one kind 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.760 of potato, because there's that one kind of potato maybe vulnerable, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.359 but another kind won't. And if you know, you can cross. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.960 But whatever, there's there's options, but we didn't have a 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:54.679 lot of that. They are they do start to figure 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:56.760 them out, and in fact, there's some very smart people 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.640 when the blight hits who are starting to figure out that, like, oh, 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.120 there's from things you could spray on these. So it 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.880 it hits Ireland and it's it's obviously it's not great, 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.600 but six it doesn't hit that hard yet. Um there's 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:11.960 only six counties in Ireland that lose more than a 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.640 third of their crop, which is significant. It is devastating 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:16.479 in a lot of ways, but it's not as bad 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.640 as it's going to get. Um. Now, what this does 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.159 mean though, and it all kind of compounds. So one 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.160 of the things about potatoes, I've been growing potatoes for 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:25.680 a couple of years. I'm not an expert at it, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.880 but one of the things that you do if you're 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.039 growing potatoes and you're not somebody you can just go 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.200 to a gardening store and pick up seed potatoes. Every 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.520 year is when you harvest potatoes, you set aside a 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.599 chunk of your harvest as seed for the next planting season, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.560 and you don't eat them. You like keep them and 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.000 let them kind of chill in a cool, dry place 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.400 so that they you can plant them next year. Um 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:54.360 and generally the broadly a lot of factors can affect this, 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.200 but broadly speaking, for one pound of potatoes you plant, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.200 you can get between five and ten pounds of yield 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.120 right at pends on a lot of factors. But that 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.360 that's kind of back of the envelope math. So usually 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:07.760 you might set aside like a third a quarter of 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.960 your harvests something like that as seed potatoes. Well, if 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.240 people are losing a third of the harvest, and we 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:19.480 as we have established, Irish farmers do not have extra 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:23.560 of anything, so you lose. And as a side note, 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:29.640 city boy here checking in first time caller on time listener, Um, 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.640 what's a potato seed? It's like a potato You could 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.760 just like if you were a potato, right, if you 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:36.960 were to have a bag You've had a bag of potatoes, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.480 and like you leave rotting on the bottom of the Yeah, 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.400 if they start rotting and get all like goopy, then 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.760 that's not good. But if they just start to usually 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:45.360 first what they'll do and it kind of depends on 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.840 how you store then, but they'll they'll sprout, right, You'll see, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.520 like the ear, if you play those under like an 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:52.720 inch or two or so a dirt with like you know, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.120 four or five inches underneath it, Um, it'll grow into 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.280 more potatoes. Um. Not an incredible crop, it's pretty cool. Now, 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.480 the one the potatoes you do buy in the grocery store, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.600 they don't tend to your best off buying generally buying 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.560 seed potatoes because they're meant to actually grow. Whereas like 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.120 there's a bunch of compliment as a general rule, Yeah, 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:12.920 you plant that if you if your potatoes start to 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:14.720 sprout and you throw them in the dirt, you'll get 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.840 some more potatoes. Um. But so part of part of 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.200 how they people survive in Ireland is you know, you 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.240 set aside this chunk of your crop for seed for 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.560 the next harvest season or for the next planting season. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.920 But when they lose a third of their crop to 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.160 this plague, they have the same coloric needs they had 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.760 the year before, but they have less potatoes. And at 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.720 some point, when you start to get hungry, you're going 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.280 to dip into those seed potatoes, which are just as 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.200 they're fine. If they're normal potatoes, you can eat them. 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.920 But when you eat your seed potatoes, what are you 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.599 gonna do next year? You have no exact tato, or 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.880 at least you have It's yeah, and there's another problem. 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.959 Some of these seed potatoes get infected with the blight 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.320 and people don't realize it until they like go like 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.640 unseal it to go plant and they realize that, like 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.079 they don't have as much to plant, or they don't 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:06.719 have anything to plant. Um. But as a result of 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.320 all this, like the first year of the so called 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.280 of the so called potato famine, right, Um, the first 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.040 year of it is the least devastating, right because it 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:17.920 hasn't killed as much of the crop yet, and people 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.640 have because of these kind of seed potato stalks, they 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.120 have a little bit of like um, a little bit 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:25.760 of like wiggle room. The other thing they have is 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.080 the English government at this point is headed by a 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:33.040 guy named Robert peel Um and peel is not the 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.400 worst guy that there's going to be running the English 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:38.080 government in this period. There's a lot of criticisms of 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.320 what he did too, but he's he's we'll talk about 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.760 him in a second. Here. It is important that I 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.080 reiterate here as we talk about this famine, as we 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.280 talk about what's happening to these farmers in the desperation 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.520 they're entering. In Ireland has plenty of food to feed 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.920 everyone living in Ireland. The famine is not caused by 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.400 a lack of things that to eat that are being 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.880 grown on the island. It is caused by the failure 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.120 of a crop that causes a surge in food prices, 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.880 which puts avoiding starvation outside of the budget of most 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.679 Irish families. It is not that there isn't food, it's 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.880 that they can't afford not to starve. That is an 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.880 important distinction. Um At the time the famine started, one 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.600 quarter of all Irish grain crops were being exported. Three 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.120 fifths of the island's total agricultural output is being sold 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.160 outside of Ireland, So six of the food produced in 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.079 Ireland does not stay there. Yeah, yes, so yeah. During 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.960 the years of the famine, the population of Ireland at 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.679 the start is about nine million, and Ireland is growing 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.199 enough food to fill an estimate to feed an estimated 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.280 eighteen million people. So again, when people say you shouldn't 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.440 call it a potato famine, that's because there shouldn't have 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.800 been a famine. Shouldn't have been There's plenty of food, 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:54.400 There's ample food. There's plenty of food. Yeah, when like, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.680 so I'm working on I just did it, recorded two 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.800 of them. Uh, sort of like for politics, kind of 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:05.040 like an economic version of hood politics. I'm kind of 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.760 just calling it like how much of dollar cost and 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:15.720 really just this idea of how inflation and commodities, goods 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.720 and service, like how that stuff kind of works like 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.280 and and and what you're explaining right now, to where 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:25.360 it's like essentially like my caloric intake, which is the 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.800 equivalent of like my cost of living, like it hasn't changed. 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:38.600 There's just not enough stuff anymore that is available for 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.880 me to consume because all the stuff that I have, 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.320 I don't really own. I gotta give it to somebody else. 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.319 So it makes for a situation to where it's like 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.040 if I can only if I only have thirty of 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.600 what I'm producing to work with. But my thirty percent 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.960 just became fifteen percent. I don't I don't end up 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.320 being less hungry. Nope, you know what I'm saying. I 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.000 just have to make less last longer. But that's impossible 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:12.440 because it costs more than it did when I had more. Yeah. Yeah, 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.880 that's that's what's happening here, kind of in in broad 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.600 um And and most of the food that is being 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.520 grown in Ireland. Then while there is this famine developing, 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:28.160 most of the food being produced in Ireland is being 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.400 shipped out of the island as soon as it's harvested. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.360 One observer at the time noted a ship sailing into 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.480 an Irish port during the famine years with a cargo 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.000 of grain was sure to meet six ships sailing out 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.760 with a similar cargo. So like ships bringing in food 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.280 aid are seeing larger amounts of food leave the island 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.000 for export. It's got to be maddening, Yes, it is. 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.080 It is maddening. This will become part of the justification 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.920 for decades of insurgency and rebellion. It really does piss 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.160 some people off. Um So, the obvious at question you're 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.680 probably asking here is couldn't they have just stopped or 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.040 reduced exports and thus kept food prices low enough that 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.600 people wouldn't have starved to death. And the answer to 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.559 that question is yes, it would have been extremely easy 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.199 to do that. It had been fine, it would have 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.000 been very easy. But food exports were how Irish farmers 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.559 paid their rent. So if you stop food from being exported, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:26.720 you would have to stop evictions too, because otherwise you 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.160 would have people who could not pay their rent and 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.640 landlords who weren't allowed to kick them off their land, 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.120 and that would be violating the rights of the landlords. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.120 So nothing new. There's nothing new. Bro. Since the English 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.000 government is not willing to do that, they decide the 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.920 next best option is to bring more food into the country, 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.400 which is producing enough food, but bring in worse food, 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.000 cheaper and lower quality food, and put enough of it 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.640 onto the market. Again, they're not trying to they don't 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.600 when they're importing food aid. It's not that they need 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.640 to bring in enough food to feed people. It's that 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:02.600 they need to bring in enough food to reduce the 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.080 price of food that people can afford it, you know, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:07.960 and that aid organizations stuff can afford it, and whatnot, 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.640 Like a lot of a lot of the way people 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:14.160 get aid food is like the Catholic organizations will buy 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:15.920 up a bunch and then distribute it and stuff and 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:17.959 like one of the things we're not really going to 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.320 get into it a lot. But like the Catholic clergy 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:22.840 in Ireland. And there's a lot of criticisms to make 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.240 of the church in Rome, but in Ireland the Catholic 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:29.040 Church clergy is supported by the people who live there, um, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.720 and they do. The Catholic clergy in Ireland do a 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.640 tremendous amount of aid work to try to deal with this, 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.240 whereas the Protestant clergy, who are paid for by like 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.840 Irish taxes essentially right, the Irish is supposed to are 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.000 paying for the Protestant faith to an extent, are not 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.160 doing that. Um. Not to say that none of them do, 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.320 because there are in fact Protestant ministers who do quite 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:50.480 a bit. But like in broad this is one of 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.640 the things that seems happened. It contributes to like a 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:54.760 lot of the anger and hatred that's building in this 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:59.840 period between Catholic and Protestant. Right. Um, So the peel 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.800 offerment decides, all right, we can't forgive rent and stop exports. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.920 So let's just bring in shitty food, right kind of 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.160 that's the idea. It just seems like like, Okay, if 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:16.080 this you're your purposefully choosing the hardest way to do this, 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:21.440 ye like just well, but even if guys like they 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.360 it's the hardest way for the people who have to 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.400 live on the island, it is the easiest way for 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.080 British politicians who then do not have to fight a 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.040 politically powerful class of landlords as much as much as 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.320 much so. The thing that the food that they, specifically 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.000 the people government brings in is what they call Indian corn, 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.240 and this is corn grown in the United States. Obviously, 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.800 the Irish are growing corn to the Indian coin they're 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.960 importing is a course, is a courser and harsher grade 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.360 of corn than the Irish are used to. It has 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.240 to be milled in order to make it edible. You 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:53.640 have to mill it in ways that they had not 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.000 been They didn't need to mill the corn the corn 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.720 that was grown on the island that they couldn't easily 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:00.960 do with the existing equipment. A lot of workarounds have 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.040 to be found in order to make this corn they're 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.120 importing edible for Irish people. Um, they have to soak 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.360 it for like days to make it soft enough. Like. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.080 One of the problems is that when people start really starving, 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:14.600 they won't soak this stuff enough and it'll tear up 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.800 their stomach. Some people die because like their bodies can't 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.040 handle how how coarse and harsh this corn is while 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.600 they're starving, right, Um, but still importing this Indian corn. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:27.560 When when the Peel government does this and they sell 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:29.480 it cheap, they don't give it away, but they sell 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.400 it very cheap and fairly small quantities. This does enough 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:38.400 to lower prices that a lot. It stops mass death 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.680 in the first year or so of famine. This is 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.680 broadly speaking Tim pat Coogan, and there's some historians that 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:46.400 disagree with him. There are people who are a lot 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.920 more critical of Peele. Cougan's attitude is that by doing this, 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.040 Peel stops a lot of people from dying right away. 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.640 That this is a broadly effective aid strategy. Um and 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:02.000 I yeah, we'll talk little bit more about that later. Um. 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:07.119 But yeah, this starts. This is not popular within English politics, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.560 and in fact that kicks off what is maybe at 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.399 the time the most vicious political fight in like modern 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.760 English parliamentary history. Um, it was perfectly legal for government, 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:18.960 for the government to buy corn and sell it in Ireland, 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.960 but selling it cheaply enough that the Irish could afford 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.080 to consume it could be seen as a violation of 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.000 what are called the Corn Laws. Now, these are first 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.080 put in place in eighteen fifteen. There are a set 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.720 of tariffs meant to protect English farmers from being ruined 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.480 by cheap foreign grain. And the effect of these laws 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.280 it's not just about corn. It's about the price of corn, barley, 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.000 wheat and other grains. But the purposes too. So it 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.919 ensures that grain only gets more expensive in Ireland in 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.480 order to protect English farmers from being ruined by imports 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.520 of cheap Irish grain, right or cheap foreign grain. Right. Like, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.320 that's the purpose of these corn laws. They are they 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.360 keep food very expensive in Ireland, but they ensure profits 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.159 for the English are kept at a certain level. Um. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.000 To me, this again, this goes back to being like 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.159 you choosing the most complicated way to solve this problem, 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.879 because I'm like you, just oh now I can't get okay, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.639 so we gotta okay. So you won't let me, you 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.320 won't let them eat what they grow, so I'm gonna 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.720 have to take what they grow and then give them 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.520 worse versions. They're gonna have to do all this other 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.119 stuff to eat. But then you're mad that I'm lowering 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:32.879 the price because you can't sell yours like this is 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:39.560 so listen uh. When but my daughter was younger, she 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:47.879 did not want her door to be shut to her bedroom. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:54.040 But she also didn't want our door to be shut 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.920 to our bedroom. But she didn't like the light coming 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:02.040 out of our bedroom, nor did she the temperature from 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:08.480 the living room changing. So her solution was everyone like 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:10.880 the temperature in her room wasn't happy. She wouldn't happy 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.119 temperature in the room. So her solution was, everyone else 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:18.080 shut the door, and I can leave mine open where 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.920 I'm like, here's a simple solution, baby, shut your door 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.439 and all the problems are solved. You don't have to 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.760 see our light, you don't have to experience the temperature 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:30.679 in the living room, you don't have to hear the 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.080 sounds coming from outside. Just shut your door. And her 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.359 solution was, how about everybody shut? Everybody else shut their doors. 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:42.440 And I'm like, well, baby, we're not gonna all We're 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:44.360 not gonna do that just because you won't shut your 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.320 just shut your door. It'll be fine. So to me, 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.240 I'm like, this is what this is what I'm picturing. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:53.840 I'm just like, fam, lower your rent, just lower your rent, 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.400 and the problem is solved. We'll talk about We're about 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:58.760 to talk about why they don't do that, but it 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:00.840 is worth noting that like one of the reasons why 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.879 they opt for this coarser kind of seen as like 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.320 worst grade of corn is that maze is not being 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:10.760 which is the kind of corn that like they're they're bringing, 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:12.720 because there's types of corn, but like the kind of 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.120 corn that they call Indian corn is not being sold 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.040 by English farmers and so it's not it doesn't fall 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.640 under these corn laws. That's why Peels. Yeah, that's why 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.359 Peel is able to get away with it. Um. But 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.479 again he also wants to Peel wants to get rid 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:30.399 of these corn laws in order to make it easier 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.800 to bring food aid into Ireland, which pistoles is drives 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.679 people insane. There is vicious resistance to them. And to 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.480 understand the resistance to this plan, we have to talk 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:46.280 about Lazai fair capitalism. Um. You do because people that 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.520 are mad that you can't sell at a certain price. 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.639 But hey, numbnuts, you're selling to your no one can 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.520 afford your price point. Well, so I don't understand. What 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.600 the hell, why what are you talking about? Anyway, Yeah, 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:08.280 we're about to get into that. So the most foundational 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.440 mind of this school of thought is an economist named 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.119 Adam Smith. UM and Smith believed that, in short, that 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.439 healthy economies are made up of individuals who are working 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.120 for their own self interest, and that this benefit society 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.000 by creating competition in the free market. Right, we're all 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.280 broadly familiar with these, Yeah, yeah, we all. Smith's most 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.280 influential work, The Wealth of Nations, is published in seventeen 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.680