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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. Taxation and the Economics of Nationalism in 1840s Ireland

Author : Charles Read

Published in: Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In terms of popular protest, the years of the Irish Famine decade are known to many scholars as ‘conspicuous for their tranquillity rather than their turbulence’. In contrast, recent research has uncovered how food shortages provoked riots at the time. There has been less scholarly interest, however, in how tax changes by the British government provoked other types of popular protest in Ireland. This chapter uncovers two important examples of this phenomenon. The first is how the tariff-cutting budget of 1842 fuelled popular support for Daniel O’Connell’s campaign to repeal the Act of Union. The second is how excessive property taxation for poor relief resulted in middle-class emigration during the Famine. Both outcomes drove popular support for Irish nationalism.

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previous chapter Resistance to the Collection of Rates Under the Poor Law, 1842–44

next chapter The Campaign Against Over-Taxation, 1863–65: A Reappraisal

Douglas Kanter, ‘The Politics of Irish Taxation, 1842–53’, English Historical Review 127, no. 528 (2012): 1121–55.

Charles Read, ‘The “Repeal Year” in Ireland: An Economic Reassessment’, Historical Journal 58, no. 1 (2015): 111–35.

Idem, ‘Laissez-Faire, the Irish Famine and British Financial Crisis’, Economic History Review 69, no. 2 (2016): 419–30.

Using the consensus estimate that GDP fell by 25 per cent during this period; Poor Relief (Ireland) (No. 2) Act, 10 & 11 Vict., c. 90.

David Dickson, ‘Taxation and Disaffection in Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland’, in Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest, 1780–1914, ed. Samuel Clark and James S. Donnelly Jr. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 37.

Philip Harling, The Waning of ‘Old Corruption’: The Politics of Economical Reform in Britain, 1779–1846 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996); Norman Gash, Sir Robert Peel: The Life of Sir Robert Peel after 1830 (London: Longman, 1972), 714; H. C. G. Matthew, ‘Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Politics of Mid-Victorian Budgets’, Historical Journal 22, no. 3 (1979): 615–43.

Martin Daunton, Trusting Leviathan: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1799–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Martin McElroy, ‘The 1830 Budget and Repeal: Parliament and Public Opinion in Ireland’, Irish Historical Studies 36, no. 141 (2008): 50–52.

Charles Stuart Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Papers, vol. 3 (London: John Murray, 1899), 34, 101; Gash, Peel, 394–96; Donal A. Kerr, Peel, Priests and Politics: Sir Robert Peel’s Administration and the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, 1841–1846 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 2.

A summary of the use of Peel’s policy to support these viewpoints can be found in Richard A. Gaunt, Sir Robert Peel: The Life and Legacy (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), 2, 149–55.

John Prest, ‘Peel, Sir Robert, second baronet (1788–1850)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew et al., http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21764 (accessed 15 Apr. 2013); Kerr, Peel, Priests and Politics, 110–22, 276.

Report of Royal Dublin Society, British Library (hereafter, BL) Add. MS 40577, ff. 21–24; Report of Agricultural Chemistry Association, Edinburgh, BL Add. MS 40577, f. 141.

Correspondence Explanatory of the Measures Adopted by Her Majesty’s Government for the Relief of Distress, No. 735 (1846), vol. 37, pp. 56–57; for the low estimate of loss in 1846 see P. M. A. Bourke, ‘The Extent of the Potato Crop in Ireland at the Time of the Famine’, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland 20, pt. 3 (1959–60): 11; for the high estimate of loss in 1846, see Correspondence from July, 1846, to January, 1847, Relating to the Measures Adopted for the Relief of Distress in Ireland, No. 761 (1847), vol. 51, p. 79.

Read, ‘Laissez-Faire’.

Kevin B. Nowlan, ‘The Political Background’, in The Great Famine: Studies in Irish History, 1845–52, ed. R. D. Edwards and T. D. Williams (Dublin: Browne and Nolan, 1956), 136.

Enda Delaney and Brendán Mac Suibhne, ‘Editor’s Introduction’, in Ireland’s Great Famine and Popular Politics, ed. Enda Delaney and Brendán Mac Suibhne (New York: Routledge, 2015), 3.

Cormac Ó Gráda, The Great Irish Famine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 36.

Ibid.

See Delaney and Mac Suibhne, eds., Ireland’s Great Famine.

James Kelly, Food Rioting in Ireland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: The ‘Moral Economy’ and the Irish Crowd (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2017).

Sir James Graham to Earl de Grey, 8 Mar. 1842, Graham Papers, BL Add. MS 79620, f. 34.

Daunton, Trusting Leviathan, 73.

P. M. A. Bourke, ‘The Use of the Potato Crop in Pre-Famine Ireland’, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland 21, pt. 6 (1967–68): 84.

Mr and Mrs S. C. Hall, Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, etc., vol. 3 (London: Hall, 1843), 451.

Alice Effie Murray, A History of the Commercial and Financial Relations between England and Ireland from the Period of the Restoration (London: Macmillan, 1903), 391–92.

L. M. Cullen, An Economic History of Ireland since 1660 (London: B. T. Batsford, 1987), 113.

Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland Before and After the Famine: Explorations in Economic History, 1800–1925 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), 38.

Ó Gráda, Ireland Before and After the Famine, 38–39; for the basic concept of stickiness in economics, see J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (London: Macmillan, 1936), 257–71.

Read, ‘Repeal Year’, 121–23.

Liam Kennedy and Peter M. Solar, Irish Agriculture: A Price History; From the Mid-Eighteenth Century to the Eve of the First World War (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2007).

Constitution; or Cork Advertiser.

Bourke, ‘The Use of the Potato Crop in Pre-Famine Ireland’, 84–85.

Lord Eliot to Graham, 9 Nov. 1842, Graham Papers, BL Add. MS 79636, f. 70.

Waterford from the Waterford Mail, Dublin the Freeman’s Journal, and Cork the Constitution.

Freeman’s Journal, 7 Feb. 1844.

Cork Examiner, 7 July 1843.

Cork Examiner, evening 16 Jan. 1843.

Nenagh Guardian and Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet, market reports, 1842–43.

Tuam Herald, 8 Oct. 1842; Freeman’s Journal, 8 Oct. 1842.

Farmers’ Gazette, 11 Oct. 1845; Freeman’s Journal and Tuam Herald (various).

Constitution; or Cork Advertiser.

Freeman’s Journal, market reports, July to Dec. 1842.

Matthew, ‘Mid-Victorian Budgets’, 615; Keynes, General Theory, 202, 148.

Freeman’s Journal, 28 May 1842.

Constitution; or Cork Advertiser, 17 Jan. 1843, 18 Jan. 1843.

Ibid., 7 Jan. 1843.

The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840–1850, ed. David Thomson and Moyra McGusty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 56, 63.

Tuam Herald, 17 Sept. 1842.

From auction sale catalogue by Adam’s, Dublin, 18 May 2010, item 18, item 27.

Freeman’s Journal, 7 July 1842.

Ibid., 24 Jan. 1837, 18 Sept. 1839, 7 Feb. 1840, 18 July 1842, 8 Jan. 1846, 7 Feb. 1840, 20 May 1846, 26 June 1846, 6 May 1847, 16 June 1847, 5 Jan. 1850, 2 May 1850.

Ibid., 27 Dec. 1842.

Ibid., 5 July 1842.

Ibid., 2 June 1842.

House of Commons, ‘Bankruptcy (Ireland)’, Sessional Papers, 1852–53 (433), vol. 94, p. 15.

Freeman’s Journal, 27 Sept. 1843.

Earl de Grey, Irish Diary, 1842 vol., Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service, L31/114/18, 40–41.

Michael J. Keyes, ‘Money and Nationalist Politics in Nineteenth Century Ireland: From O’Connell to Parnell’ (PhD diss., National University of Ireland Maynooth, 2009), 142.

Lawrence J. McCaffrey, Daniel O’Connell and the Repeal Year (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1966), 80; Kevin B. Nowlan, The Politics of Repeal: A Study in the Relations between Great Britain and Ireland, 1841–50 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965), 40.

Repeal ‘rent’ from the Nation; price data from the Constitution, Freeman’s Journal, and Waterford Mail.

Sources as in Fig. 8.1.

Joseph Lee, ‘The Social and Economic Ideas of O’Connell’, in Daniel O’Connell: Portrait of a Radical, ed. Kevin B. Nowlan and Maurice R. O’Connell (Belfast: Appletree Press, 1994), 70–86.

Freeman’s Journal, 16 Apr. 1841.

Nation, 22 Oct. 1842.

Ibid., 5 Nov. 1842.

Ibid., 7 Jan. 1843.

Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 7 Jan. 1843.

Nation, 12 Aug. 1843.

Ibid., 22 July 1843.

Times, 29 Dec. 1841.

Morning Chronicle, 24 Nov. 1840.

Era, 3 Oct. 1841; see also the Tablet, 25 Sept. 1841.

Freeman’s Journal, 12 Feb. 1842.

Ibid. To dance ‘Jim Crow’ in this context means constantly to change one’s mind in a ridiculous manner, like the popular dance of the same name. O’Connell was accusing Peel of doing this in order to please the English working classes.

Punch, 1 July 1843.

Times, 2 Jan. 1843, 6 Jan. 1843.

Morning Chronicle, 24 Nov. 1840; Times, 2 Jan. 1843; de Grey to Sir Robert Peel, 17 June 1843, Peel Papers, BL Add. MS 40478, f. 88.

Belfast Newsletter, 3 Oct. 1843; de Grey, Irish Diary, 1844 vol., Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service, L31/114/21, 21, 28.

Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 106, cols. 1454–62 (6 July 1849).

Sir Robert Peel, Tamworth Election: Speech of Sir Robert Peel (London: John Ollivier, 1841), 12.

Read, ‘Laissez-Faire’, 419–30.

Ibid., 429.

John Young to Peel, 16 Jan. 1847, Peel Papers, BL Add. MS 40598, ff. 38–42.

Using the consensus estimate that GDP fell by 25 per cent during this period; Poor Relief (Ireland) (No. 2) Act, 10 & 11 Vict., c. 90. For tax data sources see note to Fig. 8.3.

T. R. Malthus, An Investigation of the Cause of the Present High Price of Provisions (London: Johnson, 1800), 17–18.

Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), 177–78.

Arthur Laffer, ‘The Laffer Curve: Past, Present and Future’, Backgrounder, no. 1765 (June 2004), 2. For recent exploration and verification of the Laffer Curve effect in a modern context, see Mathias Trabant and Harald Uhlig, ‘How Far Are We from the Slippery Slope? The Laffer Curve Revisited’, NBER Working Paper No. 15434 (2009; rev. 2011); idem., ‘How do Laffer Curves Differ Across Countries?’, in Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis, ed. Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi (Cambridge, MA: NBER Books, 2013), 211–49.

Zsolt Becsi, ‘The Shifty Laffer Curve’, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic Review 85, no. 3 (2000): 53–64.

For the combined poundage for Poor Law, cess, and annuity charges for government loans to Poor Law Unions, see House of Commons, ‘Consolidated Annuities (Ireland)’, Sessional Papers, 1852 (19), vol. 47, pp. 125–27; for rates collected and not collected, see idem, ‘Poor Law Unions (Ireland)’, Sessional Papers, 1850 (251), vol. 50, pp. 112–13; for valuation, see idem, ‘Rate in Aid (Ireland)’, Sessional Papers, 1851 (554), vol. 49.

Edward Twisleton to Charles Trevelyan, 17 Sept. 1848, Trevelyan Papers, The National Archives: T 64/366A.

Oliver MacDonagh, ‘Irish Emigration to the United States of America and the British Colonies during the Famine’, The Great Famine; David Fitzpatrick, Irish Emigration, 1801–1921 (Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, 1984), 19–20.

Constitution; or Cork Advertiser, quoted in Reynold’s Newspaper, 16 Mar. 1851.

House of Commons, ‘First Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords Appointed to Inquire into the Operation of the Irish Poor Law’, Sessional Papers, 1849 (192), vol. 16, p. 70; idem, ‘Second Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords Appointed to Inquire into the Operation of the Irish Poor Law’, Sessional Papers, 1849 (228), vol. 16, p. 454.

Tyler Anbinder, ‘Moving beyond “Rags to Riches”: New York’s Irish Famine Immigrants and their Surprising Savings Accounts’, Journal of American History 99, no. 3 (2012): 741–70; R. J. Ernst, Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825–63 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949), 214–18.

For example, Lord Mountcashel (a.k.a. Lord Kilworth); Freeman’s Journal, 23 Aug. 1847; Nenagh Guardian, 4 May 1850; Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 26 Sept. 1852, 3 Oct. 1852.

Hansard, 3rd ser., vol. 105, col. 277 (11 May 1849).

House of Commons, ‘Grand Jury Presentments’, Sessional Papers, 1837–38 (207), vol. 46, Sessional Papers, 1839 (104), vol. 47, Sessional Papers, 1840 (41), vol. 48, Sessional Papers, 1841–1 (143), vol. 27, Sessional Papers, 1852 (20), vol. 47, Sessional Papers, 1852 (152), vol. 47, Sessional Papers, 1852–53 (366), vol. 94, Sessional Papers, 1854 (207), vol. 58; idem, ‘Poor Rate’, Sessional Papers, 1852 (319), vol. 45; idem, ‘County Rates, &c. Charges’, Sessional Papers, 1864 (538), vol. 50; idem, ‘General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners’, Sessional Papers, 1842 (567), vol. 25; Census of Ireland 1851 General Report, part 6: General Report (Dublin: Alexander Thom, 1856), lv.

Raymond L. Cohn, ‘Nativism and the End of the Mass Migration of the 1840s and 1850s’, Journal of Economic History 60, no. 2 (2000): 361–83.

Hansard, 3rd ser., vol. 125, cols. 1402–3 (18 Apr. 1853).

100

David Noel Doyle, ‘Review Article: Cohesion and Diversity in the Irish Diaspora’, Irish Historical Studies 31, no. 123 (1999): 414.

101

‘The Irish Emigrant’s Address’, Treasury note, 2 Apr. 1850, Trevelyan Papers, The National Archives: T 64/370C/1.

Title: Taxation and the Economics of Nationalism in 1840s Ireland
Author: Charles Read
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04308-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-04309-4

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_8