The Irish Potato FamineIn the mid-eighteenth century, Ireland was an agricultural nation. There were approximately eight million people living in the nation. Most people lived in extremely harsh conditions. Furthermore, there was a small percentage of educated people. According to The History Place, “Only about a quarter of the population could read and write.” It is no coincidence that agriculture then became one of the most popular professions. Before the potato famine, the Irish were able to grow large quantities of healthy potatoes. Landowners could benefit from the production as long as the potato did not deplete the soil. High potato prices encouraged the cultivation of Ireland and more and more people began to use existing agricultural land. Suddenly, Ireland's economic status changed. As Mises Daily mentions, “Repeal had a drastic impact on the capital value of farmland in Ireland and reduced the demand for labor as Irish lands converted from grain production to grazing.” However, when the potato plains suddenly turned black and curled in September 1845, British officials speculated that Ireland's food shortages would disappear with the next harvest. This speculation was based on food shortages in recent years. Irish farmers also complained that they had been farming for decades, but had never seen such a strange failure. Meanwhile, many Irish people were formulating their own unscientific theories about the causes of the famine. In fact, an airborne fungus called phytophthora infestans originally traveled from North America to England. As the wind carried the fungus into healthy Irish potato crops, the fungus infected a single potato plant within seconds. In a… medium of paper… to the importation of all kinds of human foodstuffs, that is, to the total and absolute repeal forever of all duties on all means of subsistence,” according to his memoirs. Peel also believed that the only way to alleviate hunger in Ireland was to increase food supplies. However, during the Irish Potato Famine, the problem was not a lack of food. What caused the problem was the lack of demand. Due to the fact that food prices were high, many people could not afford it. When Peel was faced with this situation, he did not distribute free food to the poor, nor did he stop the export of food. According to mtholyoke.edu, “There is evidence that during much of the famine imports were greater than exports. However, stopping exports from the most deprived places could have saved lives.” Things changed when the Irish Poor Law was enacted. Irish