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SUMMARY:The Irish Famine and British Financial Crisis - Charles Read\, Cen
 tre for Financial History and Christ's College
DTSTART:20140217T170000Z
DTEND:20140217T183000Z
UID:TALK50077@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Duncan Needham
DESCRIPTION:Scholars have substantially characterized British government p
 olicy during the Irish famine as dictated by an ideological belief in the 
 benefits of ‘laissez-faire’ and implemented by unsympathetic civil ser
 vants with a racist disregard for the suffering of the Irish poor.\n\nBy r
 eassessing the papers of British policymakers and the financial intelligen
 ce policymakers would have received from the markets\, this paper investig
 ates the causational links between financial crisis in Britain and policy 
 change in Ireland during this period.  It argues that the sources clearly 
 show that laissez-faire ideas were not the main driving force behind gover
 nment policy during the famine period.\n\nLaissez-faire ideas did not chan
 ge policy but were relied upon\, in desperation\, to re-orientate the Iris
 h economy away from subsistence and towards employment\, which was hoped w
 ould ensure the Irish could feed themselves when the resources and options
  of central government were believed to be limited.  This suggests that Br
 itish economic policy in the nineteenth century may have been affected mor
 e by the immediate practicalities of coping with financial crisis in Brita
 in than they were by abstract laissez-faire ideology.\n
LOCATION:Lucia Windsor Room\, Newnham College
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