Ireland 1691-1801: Encyclopedia II - Ireland 1691-1801 - Economic Situation

Ireland 1691-1801 - Economic Situation

In the wake of the wars of conquest of the 17th century, Irish antagonism towards England was aggravated by the economic situation of Ireland in the eighteenth century. Throughout the century English trade with Ireland was the most important branch of English overseas trade². The Protestant Anglo-Irish absentee landlords drew off some £800,000 in the early part of the century, rising to £1 million, in an economy that had a GDP of about £4 million. Completely deforested of timber for exports (usually to the Royal Navy) and for a temporary iron industry in the course of the seventeenth century, Irish estates turned to the export of salt beef, pork, butter, and hard cheese through the slaughterhouse and port city of Cork, which supplied England, the British navy and the sugar islands of the West Indies. The bishop of Cloyne wondered "how a foreigner could possibly conceive that half the inhabitants are dying of hunger in a country so abundant in foodstuffs?"³. In the 1740s, these economic inequalities, when combined with an exceptionally cold winter and poor harvest, led directly to the Great Irish Famine (1740-1741), which killed about 400,000 people. In the 1780's, due to increased competition from salted-meat exporters in the Baltic and North America, the Anglo-Irish landowners rapidly switched to growing grain for export, while the Irish themselves ate potatoes and groats.

Peasant secret societies became common in eighteenth century Ireland as the only means of tenant farmers to redress grievances against their landlords. Such groupings went by names like theWhiteboys, the Rightboys, The Hearts of Oak and the Steelboys. Issues that motivated them included high rents, evictions, enclosure of common lands and payment of tithes to the established Church of Ireland (most of the peasantry being Catholics). Methods used by the secret societies included the killing or maiming of livestock, tearing down of enclosure fences and occasionally violence against landlords, bailifs and the militia. Rural discontent was exacerbated by the rapidly growing population - a trend that would continue until the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s.

Great economic disparities existed between different areas of the country,with the north and east being relatively highly developed and involved in export of goods, whereas much of the west was roadless, hardly developed and had a cashless subsistence economy.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Economic Situation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki