a modest famine
“These mothers are compelled to spend all their time begging for the support of their helpless children,” writes the great eighteenth-century English satirist Jonathan Swift in his short pamphlet “A Modest Proposal.” In this booklet, Swift identifies the main problem in the country of Ireland, which was famine. “A Modest Proposal” is a satire in which Swift suggests a solution to famine throughout Ireland during the 18th century. Swift’s idea is that mothers sell their children to be skinned and eaten by the wealthiest members of society. At the launch of this proposal there was a great protest against it and it became immensely popular. The pamphlet had to be reprinted several times during the first few years of its publication. Famine was ravaging the nation of Ireland, but the population did not understand that it was caused by a plethora of reasons such as political, economic and social reasons.
Ireland had long been harassed by the English who had abused their friendship and eventually turned them into a colony. In 1199, the King of England, John, referred to Ireland as his “Sister Kingdom”, but things quickly changed when England saw how much money could be made from exploiting its Irish neighbours. The religion of England was Protestantism at that time, however, Ireland was a Catholic country, and this difference made English Protestants look down on Irish Catholics. By 1621, England had power over Ireland and they began passing laws that took land away from Irish Catholics. In 1641 Irish Catholics owned 59% of the land in Ireland, but by 1703 they only owned 17%. One of the main factors in this transition was the revolt of 1688. Because Irish Catholics were so terribly oppressed, in 1688 many of them decided to fight against the English. However, they could not hold out for long against the well-trained army of the English. To pay its soldiers and captains, England promised these men fighting in its army land in Ireland. Since it was the Catholics who started the uprising, it was the Catholics who lost their land when the English made good on their land promises to their soldiers. These laws continued to apply and eventually the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland was abolished. The “Sister Kingdom” idea had completely died out by 1729 and Ireland was considered an English colony.
I have already calculated the charge of nursing a beggar’s child. Ireland was in dire social straits when Swift wrote his proposal in 1729. In the 1660s to the 1680s, Charles II of England passed the Navigation Acts. These acts prohibited the export of goods by any of the English colonies unless they were exporting it to England. Since England applied these rules to Ireland, it severely hurt Irish trade, because it prevented them from trading with other countries and making any profit for themselves. In addition to the Navigation Acts, Charles 2nd passed the Cattle Acts, which prevented the English from importing cattle. He did this partly so that English cattle farmers would not have to compete with an international market. However, since the Irish could not export their cattle to England and were prohibited from exporting them anywhere else, due to navigation laws, cattle finances stopped coming into the country. Also, in 1699, England passed the Wool Act which prohibited the Irish from exporting wool anywhere, including England. This was devastating to Ireland’s economy because all over the country the Irish kept sheep and their wool fetched a fairly high price on the market compared to the rest of the goods Ireland had to sell. With this restriction on the export of wool, they were only allowed to ship it to certain English ports, allowing the English to obtain wool at a very low cost.
