How Did The Potato Blight In The 1840s And 1850s Cause More Than Catastrophic Famine

Why did the potato blight in the 1840s and 1850s cause little excess mortality in Scotland but catastrophic famine in Ireland?

The outbreak of potato blight, phytophthora infestans, originated in America and rapidly spread to countries in Northern Europe including Britain and Ireland. Different countries were affected by varying degrees but none to the devastating extent of that in Ireland. The famine in Ireland or An Gorta Mór, the great hunger, was a catastrophic disaster that lasted from 1845 to 1851 and beyond. A disaster that left over one million people in Ireland dead from disease and starvation with another one million people, in a population of just over eight million, escaping the starvation of the famine and disease through emigration. The aim of this essay is to look specifically at the excess mortality rates in Ireland as opposed to mortality in Scotland, which

The eventual repeal of the Corn Law did push down prices, although not enough for the ordinary people to afford them. A knock on effect was this also lowered the value of the corn being grown resulting in those working the land having to use more of their corn crop to pay the landlords' rent. Peel authorised a government purchase of £100,000 worth of American maize to feed the starving. A relief commission was set up to raise money from landlords urging them to employ peasants on their estates in other forms of work. To take charge of the operation Peel appointed Charles Edward Trevelyan whose principles lay in the dogma of free market Liberalism, and who, it could be argued, became synonymous with the policy of the British and the starvation of Ireland. Peel’s measures were totally inadequate in tackling the crisis despite the fact the numbers dying was comparatively small in contrast to deaths in successive