Ireland and Eastern Europe will become the main source of manpower for Smith Company in Europe. Let me introduce to you the Great Famine in Ireland.
Otherwise, you may not believe why more than half of a country's population is taken away by a male protagonist.
According to our understanding of the image of farmers, we cannot understand why a large number of farmers are willing to leave their homes.
The Great Famine in Ireland originated in 1845 due to the failure of the Irish potato harvest.
If this bad harvest were placed in the Celestial Dynasty, it would be a disaster that would directly destroy the dynasty.
Let’s first introduce Ireland before the Great Famine. Ireland was one of the top producers of agricultural products in Europe. Around 1840, the calorific value of potatoes alone was theoretically enough to satisfy a population of more than 18 million. Counting all farm products, regardless of
Factors such as losses and losses, Ireland can support 2,000-21,000,000 people for basic survival.
With such abundant agricultural support, Ireland has become a large agricultural export region, including beef, spirits, potatoes, grains, etc.
At the same time, the population also reached a peak around 1845, estimated to be 8.5 million or more.
Ireland's unique environment made it particularly suitable for potato production. By 1844, almost all farms in Ireland were growing potatoes as a single crop.
This was the peak of Irish agriculture. If there had been no subsequent famine, Ireland's population would have even exceeded the 10 million mark around 1850.
Just in 1845, because there was no scientific concept of virus-free potatoes at that time, a new type of virus began to spread in potatoes in Europe, where they did not originate. This virus directly caused the harvest of local Irish farms to decline by 10% in 1845.
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In biology, every time the food chain goes up a level, a large amount of caloric value will be lost, and the potato harvest will fail. In order to maintain the export of beef and spirits, farmers still use potatoes on a large scale, causing a small-scale local famine.
In the first year of famine, the English government actually provided timely relief. Coupled with the local agricultural products and grain reserves, there were basically no large-scale starvation deaths in Ireland in 1845.
But in 1846, things changed.
The special way of planting potatoes means that the Irish people have no new potatoes to replace the infected potatoes. Irish farmers choose to plant some potatoes that look good but are actually infected into the ground.
In the end, Ireland's potato harvest collapsed completely, and potato production was less than 10% of what it was before 1844. Note that it was not a decrease of 10%, but only 10% of the original.
The large-scale harvest failure directly destroyed Ireland's agriculture. There are 8.5 million people in Ireland. The local farm products could theoretically satisfy 20 million people two years ago, but now they can only satisfy 300-400 thousand people at most to maintain the minimum food and clothing.
But for farmers, if they want to maintain the previous production of beef spirits, they must use all the few potatoes to feed livestock and make wine.
The Great Famine Era officially began in Ireland.
It also coincided with the change of government in England, and the new Prime Minister of England, John Russell, was an advocate of free trade.
He believes that Ireland should not receive a large number of bailouts and should let nature take its course and let Ireland be self-reliant.
This view was a devastating blow to the Irish people, but from the perspective of the interests of the English government, it was beneficial.
Although England was in the glory of the Victorian era at that time, it was really difficult for the British government to support the problem of food rations of more than 4 million for 8.5 million people.
Even if grain could be transported all the way from India to Ireland, providing free support to Ireland would be a pure burden for the English government, especially the factory owners and capitalists there, without seeing any short-term or long-term benefits.
You must know that the largest forces in England at that time were large-scale industrial factory owners and capitalists, and they were unwilling to lose their own interests to rescue Ireland from such an unprecedented disaster.
In 1846, Ireland began to experience small areas of population death and flight, but most of the lowest level civilians still relied on food storage and other means to survive in Ireland with difficulty.
In 1847, some farmers chose to resume other crops such as cereals that had been cultivated on a large scale. However, due to the unique environment of Ireland, in an era when farmers could not afford chemical fertilizers, these crops were not enough to support the survival of a population of 8 million, let alone these cereals and other crops.
Potatoes are also brewed and cattle are raised to export spirits, beef and other agricultural products.
Although the Irish agricultural potato industry improved somewhat this year, potato output was still less than 20% of what it was before the disaster, and all the stocks in previous years were consumed, making this the most severe year of the disaster.
In the following years, Ireland has been facing a shortage of farm products to support the needs of the country's population, and farmers still choose to export beef and spirits.
Under the dual influence, the Irish people began to face the problem of famine caused by poor harvests for many years.
Until around 1860, Ireland had not completely solved the problem of potato detoxification that was most suitable for the local area. Local farmers could only sum up their experiences and lessons and barely maintained Ireland's potato yield per acre at half of the pre-disaster yield.
The cause of the Great Famine in Ireland was that the output of local farm products was directly reduced to one-tenth of its original value, which dealt a fatal blow to the local population that relied on surplus farm products to develop rapidly. Between 1845 and 1865, Ireland conservatively estimated that 1.5 million
People fled overseas, and 2 million people died due to famine.
By around 1865, Ireland had a population of less than five million.
But if there had not been more people born in the past twenty years, Ireland's population might have been directly classified as around 2 million after the famine.
Of course, a population of 2 million is actually the appropriate number for Ireland to maintain population stability after the potato "sickness", while maintaining the export of beef spirits.
During the Great Famine in Ireland, the increase in the number of farm products that continued to be exported was not much higher than the annual increase in exports before the famine.
From the data point of view, the increase in Irish agricultural exports has actually decreased. It is nonsense to say that the English government forced exports. The English government led by John Russell at the time chose to completely let the free market go and did not directly participate in it.
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But the devastating virus has reduced potatoes, the most critical of Ireland's farm products, and the most basic layer of Ireland's "farm product biological chain", by more than 80%. If the original export level is maintained at this time, it will definitely kill the Irish people.
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The English government chose not to rescue or manage, but to wait and see the market and let the market make its own choices. This was also the method of governing the country preached by John Russell at the time.
The English government did not take the initiative to continue to put pressure on the Irish people in this disastrous environment. Instead, the middle class of Ireland and England, as well as all the merchants who still imported Irish agricultural products, killed the Irish people.
In Ireland, the ones who really insist on maintaining exports and increasing the production of beef spirits, in a sense killing thousands of Irish people, are the local farmers in Ireland.
They are unwilling to give up the high profits of these agricultural products.
But now that Ireland is independent, the farmers back then have become the ancestors of today’s high-ranking founders of Ireland. Now the voices of the Great Famine in Ireland are all blamed on the inaction of the English government. We must use today’s moral standards to criticize the mid-19th century.
A government dominated by large industrialized capitalists.
What’s even more interesting is that the first high-level leaders of Ireland are also capitalists who transformed from farmers into large industrial factory owners.
While they spurn the government led by their colleagues, they advocate their colleagues' governing ideas in the country.
They did not even mention their ancestors. The Irish farmers at that time also insisted on exporting independently despite the fact that the output of local farm products dropped by four-fifths.
Not to mention that European countries are obviously going to donate to the famine, but they still import low-priced Irish agricultural products.
It is obviously an export driven by profit, but in the eyes of the current Irish government, it seems that the English government is pointing a gun at them and forcing them to export.
Most of the articles mentioned now only criticize the inaction of the British government, but do not criticize the interest class of large-scale industrialized capitalists and factory owners who were in power in England at that time, nor do they describe the political environment at that time in detail.
There is no doubt that the cause of the Great Famine in Ireland was the failure of the potato harvest. It was indeed the English government that allowed the country to be laissez-faire, but local Irish farmers who insisted on increasing exports were also not to blame.
Due to various influences, the Great Famine in Ireland became one of the most serious famines in human history.
Nowadays, the Irish government has put all the blame on the English government, and mainstream articles have also put most of the responsibility on the English government.
The biggest reason why I feel so depressed is the potato harvest failure. Without the harvest failure caused by this virus, even if Ireland's export volume were doubled, it would still be able to meet the survival of 8.5 million people in Ireland. This prerequisite is the most important.
The biggest root cause is this. Agricultural output has dropped significantly. This is a dead end that cannot be saved. Unless the English government is willing to gather all the manpower and material resources of Great Britain in the Victorian era to carry out a blood transfusion for Ireland for more than a hundred years, otherwise
The 8.5 million people in Ireland certainly cannot maintain food and clothing.
Ideally this would avoid a massive famine.
But the reality is that Irish farmers insist on exporting and the English government does nothing. This completely exposes the profit-seeking nature of capitalists.
What makes this person even more horrified is that if we put aside the life and death of the people and think from the perspective of pure interests, the Irish farmers and the ruling big factory owners and big capitalists in England, from their respective perspectives, neither side has anything.
If you make a mistake, you will make the right choice.
But for most people, the vast majority of people, just like you and me, in the face of disaster, we are still Irish farmers, not factory owners, farmers, or capitalists.
It's hard for the people to prosper, and it's hard for the people to die.
We will always firmly support a government that does practical things for the people, rather than a government that treats the people as numbers.
