1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class from how 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 3 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 1: tracybe Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Molly, Can I tell 4 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: you a story? It was a little when I was little, 5 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: we learned a history lesson about the Irish potato famine, 6 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,280 Speaker 1: and it was basically summed up as all the potatoes 7 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: died and a lot of people either starved or moved away. Right, 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 1: That was sort of summing up. That's pretty much the 9 00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: way I was taught about it as well. Right, So 10 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: my little kid question was, well, how come they didn't 11 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: eat something else? I think a lot of little kids 12 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 1: asked that question, right, And so now grown up me 13 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:48,880 Speaker 1: kind of looks back at little kid me, And until 14 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: I learned the whole story, I was like that that 15 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: is a very privileged question, right, because we were a 16 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,880 Speaker 1: pretty modest family, and we did grow all of our 17 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: own vegetables, but we grew a whole lot more than 18 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: just potatoes, and we also generally had enough food to eat. Uh. 19 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 1: But it turns out, why didn't they eat something else? 20 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:14,040 Speaker 1: Is a really really good question about the Irish potato 21 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: famine And that's what we're going to talk about for 22 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:21,479 Speaker 1: the next two episodes. This is a popular request We've 23 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 1: got in a lot of times. I actually ran into 24 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: Katie and Sarah over the weekend and they said they 25 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 1: had also been asked to talk about it very often, 26 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 1: and that they didn't have the heart to do it 27 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: because it's not exactly like a fun, jolly joy ride. No, 28 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: it's one of those things where it's clear from the 29 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: beginning that it's not a jolly joy ride because about 30 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: a million people died and about two million people left 31 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: their homes and immigrated elsewhere. But it's way worse than 32 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: just that. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of suffering to 33 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: the story, so I know that going in, yes, And 34 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: it's also one that requires a fair amount of background 35 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:00,800 Speaker 1: to understand why it is that we got to this 36 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 1: point that everyone was only eating potatoes. Um. So this 37 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: is going to be a two part episode, and the 38 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: first is going to really set the stage for many 39 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,359 Speaker 1: of the layers of what went terribly wrong here, and 40 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: then the second episode will get into how all of 41 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: that played out in the history of Ireland. So we're 42 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:24,959 Speaker 1: talking about the mid eighteen hundreds in Ireland. Catholics were 43 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: really deeply disenfranchised in this point in Irish history. Ireland 44 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: had been part of Britain since eighteen hundred under the 45 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: British Act of Union, and under this Act, Ireland was 46 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: granted representation in Parliament, but Catholics were not allowed to 47 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: be members of Parliament, and Catholics were the overwhelming majority 48 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: of the population of Ireland. So while Ireland technically had 49 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: representation in Parliament the majority of its its population, we're 50 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,639 Speaker 1: not really represented right. And there had been a number 51 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: of laws in place restricting very basic aspects of life 52 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: for Catholics, like owning property and having jobs, and some 53 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:07,519 Speaker 1: of these dated back to the sixteen hundreds when Irish 54 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: Catholics sided with James the Second in his battle with 55 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: William of Orange for the British throne. So lots of 56 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 1: very old rules and laws and prejudices that were affecting 57 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: these people in a very real way well, and things 58 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: that we really take for granted by like being allowed 59 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: to get a job, ye, Catholics were not allowed to do. 60 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: Most of these laws had been repealed in eighty nine, 61 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 1: which is also when Catholics were allowed to become members 62 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: of Parliament, but by that point anti Catholic bigotry was 63 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,680 Speaker 1: really deeply entrenched in the Irish culture, and a lot 64 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: of those past social norms about what people were allowed 65 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: to do and how they were allowed to practice their 66 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: religion had been extremely slow to change. So while maybe 67 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: things were legal now, it's still was not really easy 68 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: people to do things like get jobs in in property. 69 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: In Ireland this point was also extremely deeply impoverished as 70 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 1: a nation. Only about one quarter of the population was literate, 71 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: and in a theme we've discussed another podcast, modernization had 72 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: really stripped a lot of the working people there of 73 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:17,039 Speaker 1: their livelihoods. The linen and wool industries, for example, have 74 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: been industrialized, and so the people that made a living 75 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 1: in those trades suddenly could no longer find work. In 76 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:27,160 Speaker 1: rural areas, large families were living in tiny mud cabins 77 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,480 Speaker 1: that didn't have windows or chimneys, and most of them 78 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: were subsistence farmers. None virtually none of them owned the 79 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: land that they were farming. For the most part, they 80 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: were overwhelmingly Catholic tenants who were paying their rent to 81 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:45,920 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly Protestant absentee landlords who for the most part, we're 82 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: living in England not in Ireland, and many of these 83 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: Irish families weren't paying their rent directly to their landlords, 84 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: so there was a level of complexity to it. Much 85 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:58,359 Speaker 1: of the land had been parceled out through a middleman system, 86 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,280 Speaker 1: which had been in place since the seventeen hundreds. So 87 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: a Protestant middleman would rent a sizeable piece of land 88 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: from the landowners, subdivide it, and then rent that out 89 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: to tenants, and the tenants paid the middleman, and the 90 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:13,279 Speaker 1: middleman paid the landowner, and so that inflated the rent, 91 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,720 Speaker 1: and to raise their profits, middlemen would divide the land 92 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: into smaller and smaller parcels and raise rent at the 93 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:22,920 Speaker 1: same time. So by eighteen forty five, half of these 94 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 1: little farms were on five acres or less, and pretty 95 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: much everybody had less than ten acres, like, they were 96 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:33,280 Speaker 1: all really pretty small for a farm. So to add 97 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: just another layer of ugliness to this whole situation, a 98 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: lot of these tenants were renting land that their families 99 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:44,400 Speaker 1: had previously owned but had been confiscated from them following 100 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: Cromwell's invasion of Ireland in the seventeenth century. So you 101 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: have people who really are pretty poor in terms of 102 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:54,159 Speaker 1: how much money they have living on a tiny amount 103 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: of land, paying inflated rent to people who own land 104 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: that their own families used to own and don't anymore. 105 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:04,680 Speaker 1: Already very uplifting story, I know, we'll just leave that 106 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: settle for a minute. Uh. And there were some communal 107 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: aspects to this setup. People often bartered instead of using money, 108 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,280 Speaker 1: and those who couldn't afford land would often find work 109 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: with tenant families and these labors would help with chores 110 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: and help bring in the harvest in exchange for being 111 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:23,840 Speaker 1: able to build their own cottage and plant their own 112 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,280 Speaker 1: little garden plot. And this brings us to the potatoes. 113 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:31,920 Speaker 1: Potatoes really thrived in the Irish soil and climate. It 114 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: was a reliable and pretty muttious food staple. Um it 115 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: although you know, potatoes get a lot of flak nowadays 116 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 1: nowadays for their high carbohydrates and all that kind of stuff. 117 00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: But very starchy food. But they have lots of itam 118 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: and see lots of other nutrients. And so people who 119 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,880 Speaker 1: were living largely on potatoes a lot of times really 120 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: were better nourished than people who were living mostly on 121 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:58,840 Speaker 1: say bread. Um. So the introduction of the potato had 122 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: led the Irish pot elation to double between seventeen eighty 123 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 1: and eighteen forty five, so more people meant that they 124 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:08,920 Speaker 1: needed to grow more food, and as the supply of 125 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: arable land got used up, farms were getting smaller and 126 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: smaller to accommodate this increase in the population, and of 127 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 1: course smaller and smaller farms made it harder for farmers 128 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: to grow enough food to feed their families. So doing 129 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,840 Speaker 1: this had required potatoes, which had a much larger yield 130 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 1: than any other food crop. With a good harvest and 131 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: a cultivated plot of land, a family of six could 132 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: subsist for a year on an acre of potatoes, including 133 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: potato scraps that they could feed their animals, and they 134 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: would take three times as much land to grow the 135 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,240 Speaker 1: same amount of grain, so enough grain to feed that 136 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: same family would take a longer land. So people were 137 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: planning potatoes because that was the only way they could 138 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: get enough food. Any Other land they rented was being 139 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,720 Speaker 1: used to keep animals or to grow crops, and those 140 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: were grown to sell so that they could pay rent, 141 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: rather than eating and providing them for their families. Right, 142 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: So potatoes were for eating and everything else was to sell. 143 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,160 Speaker 1: Thanks to this combination of factors, by forty five, sixty 144 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:11,600 Speaker 1: of the Irish food supply was potatoes, and the poorest 145 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: people in Ireland were living almost exclusively on potatoes. And 146 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: most people were also planting the same variety of potatoes, 147 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: which were called lumpers, and they gave a really high yield, 148 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:25,680 Speaker 1: but they weren't as nutritious as some other varieties. They 149 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:29,560 Speaker 1: plant around March and harvest round September or October, and 150 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: then they could bury the harvested potatoes into pits where 151 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: they keep until around July of the following year. So 152 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,440 Speaker 1: this meant that July and August were really rough and 153 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: lean months, even in the best of times. And it 154 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 1: also meant that diseases were really likely to spread easily 155 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: because everyone was planting the same stream of potato. Yeah, 156 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:51,959 Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of diversity to resist pathogens that 157 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:55,800 Speaker 1: came around. This also meant that life for farmers in 158 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: Ireland had some periods of intensely hard work during planting 159 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 1: and harvest sting, and some spans of relative leisure in between. 160 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: The potatoes didn't involve they didn't require tons of upkeep 161 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 1: um and so even when people were farming other stuff. 162 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:12,560 Speaker 1: A lot of times they had a life that balanced 163 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:17,360 Speaker 1: hard work with periods of rest. Unfortunately, in many places 164 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: of the world that we're not Ireland, people viewed this 165 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: as laziness and idleness and shiftlessness, and that may have 166 00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: contributed to some of the reluctance to send help once 167 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:31,480 Speaker 1: help was really needed here. Uh. So to characterize the 168 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: start of the problems involving the potatoes, the Irish potato famine, 169 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: which is what it's called in the rest of the world, 170 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: but in Ireland it's called the Great Hunger or on 171 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: Gorth the Moore or the bad Life droo uh started 172 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:48,600 Speaker 1: in a forty five when a blight destroyed part of 173 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:52,120 Speaker 1: the potato crop. The blight hit potatoes in other parts 174 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: of the world too, and it had economic effects in 175 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: other areas as well, but really, nowhere else in the 176 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:01,880 Speaker 1: world was relying as much on potatoes as Ireland was, 177 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 1: so while the effects were much more wide reaching in 178 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 1: terms of the food supply, Ireland was really hit the hardest. 179 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 1: And this blight started by attacking the leaves and stems, 180 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:15,960 Speaker 1: causing them to turn black and rot, and the potatoes 181 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,360 Speaker 1: would look edible when they were dug out of the ground, 182 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:22,239 Speaker 1: but within days they'd turned slimy and black. The initial 183 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 1: response from the government was actually kind of on the ball. 184 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, sent a commission to 185 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 1: evaluate what was going on that October, and the commissioner 186 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 1: came back with the report that Ireland was probably going 187 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: to lose half of its potato crop. The scientific community 188 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,920 Speaker 1: pretty quickly concluded that some kind of disease was to blame, 189 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,439 Speaker 1: but the people whose lives really depended on those potatoes, 190 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,440 Speaker 1: as we said before, not a very educated community, blamed 191 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:53,160 Speaker 1: everything from static electricity to fumes from the newly built railroads. 192 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:56,360 Speaker 1: And this was by far not the first potato blight 193 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:58,960 Speaker 1: that had ever happened in history. Crops had failed certainly 194 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: before this, but even a whole season of crops had 195 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:06,400 Speaker 1: failed before. But Ireland had never seen anything on this scale, 196 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: and it had never encountered two years of light in 197 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,080 Speaker 1: a row, which you can imagine was really devastating. So 198 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:15,520 Speaker 1: when Prime Minister Peel made some efforts to send relief, 199 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,520 Speaker 1: because everybody was kind of expecting this to be a 200 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:21,760 Speaker 1: temporary thing that would resolve itself with the next year's harvest, 201 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:26,640 Speaker 1: um it wasn't a huge governmental response. The general consensus 202 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:28,719 Speaker 1: was sort of things would be back to normal. This 203 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: was gonna be a short lived, difficult period that would 204 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: resolve itself in another season. But unfortunately, in eighteen forty 205 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:42,600 Speaker 1: six the blight returned, and to sort of add insult 206 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:45,080 Speaker 1: to injury, it was actually much worse the second year. 207 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 1: Thanks to the wet weather conditions and the fact that 208 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:51,880 Speaker 1: diseased potatoes had been used as seed, It's spread farther 209 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: and faster than it had in its initial incarnation, so 210 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:57,440 Speaker 1: people didn't have enough to eat and they didn't have 211 00:11:57,559 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: enough to feed the animals, and hunger related illnesses like 212 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: typhoid and cholera started to spread. And since people have 213 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 1: been getting most of their vitamin SEA from potatoes, scurvy 214 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:10,720 Speaker 1: also became a problem. The British government did a couple 215 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:13,720 Speaker 1: of things to try to help. Prime Minister Peel pushed 216 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:16,800 Speaker 1: through a repeal of the Corn Laws. These were laws 217 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 1: that were meant to protect British grain growers from foreign 218 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: competition by imposing really high tariffs on imported grain. So 219 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:29,240 Speaker 1: by reducing the grain supply, the Corn Laws caused British 220 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: grain growers to be able to get a higher price 221 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:35,240 Speaker 1: for their crops. Repealing the corn laws was supposed to 222 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: bring more grain into Ireland and drive prices down, but 223 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,640 Speaker 1: Ireland and the Irish people didn't really have enough money 224 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:47,360 Speaker 1: to buy the grain, even at the lower prices that spring. 225 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,319 Speaker 1: Prime Minister Peel, without going through Parliament, bought maze from 226 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: the US to be distributed as food. Maze was cheap, 227 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:56,800 Speaker 1: but it also needed to be milmed to be edible, 228 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,560 Speaker 1: and there weren't enough mills to actually handle it. On 229 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,040 Speaker 1: top of that, maze is a very sturdy grain that 230 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:05,600 Speaker 1: needed more processing than other grains, so the mills that 231 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:08,679 Speaker 1: already were not numerous enough to process it were streamed 232 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,080 Speaker 1: even more because it took more time to process the 233 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: amount that they could handle. Once it was milled into meal, 234 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:17,400 Speaker 1: the maze was going to be sold at the rate 235 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,680 Speaker 1: of a penny per pound, but just like with the 236 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,320 Speaker 1: imported grain, a lot of people who really needed it 237 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: just could not afford to buy it. Um This corn 238 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:29,599 Speaker 1: meal was also a lot different from the potatoes that 239 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,040 Speaker 1: the Irish were used to eating, both in terms of 240 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:36,760 Speaker 1: nutrition and digesting it, and so diarrhea and scurvy became 241 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:40,400 Speaker 1: really common complaints among the people who were managing to 242 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:44,360 Speaker 1: buy this corn meal to eat. Additionally, the British grain 243 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:47,040 Speaker 1: industry was really angry over both the repeal of the 244 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,560 Speaker 1: corn laws and the import of maze. The Conservative government 245 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:53,680 Speaker 1: started to falter and Prime Minister Peel resigned on June 246 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:57,880 Speaker 1: twenty nine eighty. The new Liberal government, also known as 247 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,199 Speaker 1: the Whig Party came into power, and it really followed 248 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 1: the principle of lais affair, which was basically leave alone 249 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 1: and it's going to work itself out. The Liberal government 250 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: was really reluctant to make decisions that would affect private enterprise, 251 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,160 Speaker 1: so once Prime Minister Peel was out of office, the 252 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:17,680 Speaker 1: British government did not do a lot to intervene in 253 00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: the blight. There were no big influxes of food or 254 00:14:20,840 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: monetary relief coming from the government. This is a concept 255 00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:29,360 Speaker 1: that probably seems seems incomprehensible to the years of a 256 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 1: modern audience in the world, where disasters lead to immediate 257 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:35,800 Speaker 1: efforts at relief, But that's not what the ideology was 258 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: like in the mid nineteenth century, and there were private 259 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: fundraising efforts internationally, notably in major cities in the US 260 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: and India. Quakers led fundraising efforts, and the Choctaw Indians 261 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:49,960 Speaker 1: recently relocated during the Trail of Tears actually sent a 262 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,800 Speaker 1: donation as well. So while there was some international response 263 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:56,320 Speaker 1: and some relief on the part of private citizens, it 264 00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,880 Speaker 1: still just was not enough. Under the new Prime Minister 265 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: John Russell, famine policy fell to Charles Edward Trevillion, who 266 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 1: was the Assistant Secretary of the British Treasury. He had 267 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: been involved in the famine response during Peals administration, but 268 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:15,160 Speaker 1: now he was basically running the show. He ordered an 269 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:18,000 Speaker 1: end to the sale of Maze, and he rejected an 270 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: incoming shipment of it, saying that he was going to 271 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 1: try to prevent the Irish from becoming dependent on government handouts. 272 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:27,720 Speaker 1: Apart from the laz A Fair principles under which the 273 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:32,600 Speaker 1: Whig Party was operating uh Travillion himself had a belief 274 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 1: in divine providence, which also influenced his hands off approach 275 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:39,360 Speaker 1: to the whole situation. In the famine, everyone was sort 276 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: of working under the assumption that private citizens were going 277 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: to step up and provide relief, and that Ireland could 278 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: use its tax revenue to fund public works projects that 279 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 1: would employ Irish farmers. The farmer's income would be taxed, 280 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: and that tax money would fund more projects and a 281 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: cycle that would pull Ireland up out of poverty. But 282 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:00,800 Speaker 1: the Irish government didn't really have enough need to start with. 283 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 1: People's wages were too low for income tax to keep 284 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: up with the need for government spending, and also really 285 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 1: too low for people to actually meet their own daily needs. 286 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: So in addition to they weren't making enough money to 287 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 1: buy things, their wages were not enough too for the 288 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 1: tax revenue to be adequip for the government. So what 289 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: happened instead was that public works projects were flooded with 290 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: way more workers than they could possibly use or pay. 291 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,160 Speaker 1: And so that's where we're gonna pause on this part 292 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:32,840 Speaker 1: of the story. Uh So we're leaving at eighteen forty six. 293 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: Ireland situation is extremely dire and Britain has taken a 294 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:41,680 Speaker 1: largely handsoff approach to mitigating this crisis. So in the 295 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:45,120 Speaker 1: next part of this episode, we're going to pick up 296 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:48,120 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty six and eighteen forty seven and and 297 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 1: tell how the rest of the the famine unfolded in 298 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,760 Speaker 1: Irish history. Do you also have a bit of listener 299 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,720 Speaker 1: mail to treat us with? I knew. This is from 300 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:02,880 Speaker 1: Mike and it is about our kind of recent episode 301 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:06,159 Speaker 1: about the Hindenburg, And Mike says, just some comments on 302 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:09,439 Speaker 1: your podcast concerning the Hindenburg. You seem surprised that there 303 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: would be a smoking room in this very dangerous environment. 304 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,880 Speaker 1: This everyone's smoked, and if they had made a Zeppelin 305 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: non smoking, it would have been very difficult to get 306 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:22,000 Speaker 1: anyone to buy a ticket. Been a pas there. Yeah, 307 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,439 Speaker 1: we are aware that everyone's smoked, but it still seems 308 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:29,359 Speaker 1: ridiculous to allow smoking in a dangerously flammable That's all 309 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:31,679 Speaker 1: it is. I mean, I certainly know every smoke, but 310 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,360 Speaker 1: that thing of like, you know, this is really flammable, 311 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: let's put a fire room in it. Yeah, yeah, I know. 312 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,639 Speaker 1: Past hosts have done an episode on the Radium Girls 313 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: before and how people were really not aware that radium 314 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:46,960 Speaker 1: was killing people. Yeah, and people weren't so really aware 315 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,879 Speaker 1: that smoking was killing people there, but they were aware 316 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 1: that smoking was fire and that that hydrogen was vastly flammable. Yeah, 317 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: that's why it's surprising. Yeah, that's why that's where that 318 00:17:57,400 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 1: But it's true, no one would have ever gone near 319 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: it into of passenger bookings. Smoking was a multi day trip. 320 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,520 Speaker 1: So back to the letter, there are a lot of 321 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 1: connections between Zeppelin's and the world of Philately. I'm a 322 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: stamp collector. In the U. S. Post Office issued a 323 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:18,399 Speaker 1: step of three stamps exclusively for mail on the graph 324 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,200 Speaker 1: Zeppelin Round the World flight. The total face value of 325 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:23,639 Speaker 1: the stamps was four dollars and fifty five cents, an 326 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,919 Speaker 1: incredible sum. In the middle of the depression, almost no 327 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 1: one bought the stamps, and today a set sums for 328 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 1: about hundred dollars. By the way, a crash cover from 329 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:38,440 Speaker 1: the Handenburg sells for twenty thousand to twenty five thousand dollars. 330 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:41,359 Speaker 1: The graf Zeppelin, by the way, was never used in wartime. 331 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,359 Speaker 1: It was scratched during World War Two. A good picture 332 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:46,400 Speaker 1: of the smoking room on the Handenburg may be seen 333 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,280 Speaker 1: in the movie The Handenburg Start starring George C. Scott. 334 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:52,560 Speaker 1: The film's not completely accurate. The pianos there on the 335 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,800 Speaker 1: last voyage, although from what you said it wasn't taken 336 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,600 Speaker 1: long on the flight. Also, it says that Hugo Eckner 337 00:18:57,720 --> 00:18:59,040 Speaker 1: was on board to try to talk to the US 338 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:02,160 Speaker 1: government and a selling Germany hydrogen. I don't know if 339 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: this is true or not. So thank you Ma for 340 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:08,240 Speaker 1: sending us that letter. Yeah, the stamp stuff is super 341 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 1: interested and I I did not read that Hugo Eckner 342 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: was on board to try to talk the US into anything, 343 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:17,800 Speaker 1: but more he was just sort of there for German 344 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:19,919 Speaker 1: procedural reasons. But that could have been one of the 345 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,840 Speaker 1: things that came up. So thank you so much for 346 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:25,920 Speaker 1: writing to us, Mike. If you would like to write 347 00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,920 Speaker 1: to us, you can at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. 348 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: We're also on Facebook at facebook dot com slash history 349 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,480 Speaker 1: class stuff, and on Twitter at missed in History. You 350 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:37,719 Speaker 1: can find our tumbler at miss in history dot tumbler 351 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,720 Speaker 1: dot com, and we have a board on Pinterest. If 352 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: you would like to learn a little more about some 353 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: of the other ways that things have gone very very 354 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 1: wrong in history, you can go to our website and 355 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,160 Speaker 1: put the word worst decisions in our search bar. You'll 356 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,440 Speaker 1: find an article called ten of the worst Decisions Ever made. 357 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,480 Speaker 1: This particular event is not on it, but it could 358 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,920 Speaker 1: probably have a place in there. There are so many 359 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 1: bad decisions in the history of the world that fitting 360 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,600 Speaker 1: only ten in is a little bit of an injustice. Yes, 361 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:09,040 Speaker 1: and as we'll talk about in the next episode. There 362 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,000 Speaker 1: is some debate about exactly what the bad decisions were 363 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,640 Speaker 1: um in the context of the famine, so we will 364 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,520 Speaker 1: be back at our next episode with more on the 365 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:23,160 Speaker 1: potato famine. And you can learn about a whole lot 366 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:25,560 Speaker 1: of awesome stuff at our website, which is how Stuff 367 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:30,879 Speaker 1: Works dot com. For more on this and thousands of 368 00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:44,400 Speaker 1: other topics, How stuff works dot com. 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