Читать книгу Twelve Diseases that Changed Our World - Irwin W. Sherman - Страница 17

Many of the great civilizations of the world were established by people who settled down and cultivated a staple food crop. In Southeast Asia it was rice, in Europe it was grain (wheat and rye), and for the Mayans and Aztecs in Central America and Mexico it was corn. The South American Incas cultivated a plant that grew well above the 10,000-ft level in the high valleys and cold plateaus of the Andes mountains. This plant had stems above and below ground level, and the swollen underground stems—called tubers—were highly nutritious. These tubers, which the Incas called “papas,” we call potatoes. The potato tuber is nutritious because it contains proteins, starches, and vitamins. The potato was the staple food source on which the Inca civilization was built, and even today it is one of the most important food crop plants in the world. Although rice, maize (corn), and wheat are the top three food plants, the potato ranks fourth. Indeed, one-fifth of the world’s people use the potato as their primary food source today.

The Incas first cultivated the potato over 6,000 years ago. When the Spanish Conquistadors under Pizarro came to the Americas in search of treasure, they destroyed the Inca civilization but discovered something more valuable than gold, silver, and jewels—the potato plant. This plant, perhaps the most priceless possession of the Incas, the Conquistadors did not even bother to record. By the late 1500s the sailors on Spanish galleons accidentally introduced these plants into Europe, where they were considered more of a curiosity than a foodstuff. They may have been rejected as a food because the potato is a member of the poisonous nightshade family. It was also claimed to cause leprosy, and even its reputation as an aphrodisiac did not make it acceptable. (The seductive Marie Antoinette, it is claimed, wore potato blossoms in her hair.) It was widely believed that eating potatoes caused flatulence, and so initially the tubers were fed to farm animals; however, since this caused no harm, the potato came to be accepted as a food fit for humans. By the 1800s, with an increase in the population of Europe and the inability of grains to support this population, the potato became a regular part of the diet. Easy cultivation and high yields in cool climates led to a major dependence on potatoes by populations on the high cold plateaus of Spain, the dank flatlands of Germany and Poland, and the soggy bogs of Ireland. The British landowners encouraged cultivation of the potato in Ireland since it saved the grain for export and for their own use. Furthermore, only in the southeastern part of Ireland is the soil suitable for growing grain (rye or wheat) from which bread can be made, but potatoes can be grown even in the poorest soils.

The Irish invented a highly efficient method of potato cultivation, called the “lazy bed.” The lazy bed is one in which the seed potatoes (“eyes” of the tuber) are placed helter skelter on the ground and covered with manure and seaweed, and then the soil dug from lateral trenches is piled on top so that long, narrow beds of soil are raised 2 to 3 ft above the surrounding ground. This protects the tubers from excess moisture. The cultivation of potatoes produces a high-yield crop (~30 tons/acre). Potato plants mature faster than most crops, taking 90 to 120 days, and edible tubers can be harvested in 60 days. The potato tuber is higher in protein than soybean, and half a potato can provide half of the human daily requirement of vitamin C.

Feudal systems tended to favor high birth rates because under such a system the number of dependents was a measure of a person’s wealth. Children were a cheap and expendable source of labor and could be relied on to provide assistance in one’s old age. In Ireland this led to a massive increase in the birth rate, and after the middle of the 17th century more newborns survived because there was a reduction in the death rate due to reduced infant mortality, tribal warfare, murder, and mayhem. In 1660 the population of Ireland was 500,000, but by 1688 it had doubled to 1.25 million. Between 1760 and 1840 it grew from 1.5 million to about 8 million. This explosive growth in the population of Ireland strained the economy and left many peasants living under bare subsistence conditions. As the Irish population grew, the land was further subdivided and living standards declined. The British government attempted to consolidate these small plots as a way of increasing grain output and also instituted Penal Laws which denied the Irish peasant population freedom. They were forbidden to speak their own language and practice their faith, to attend school or hold public office, to own land, or to own a horse worth more than £5. A peasant earned £7 per year, of which two-thirds was paid as rent. A pig, valued at £4 when sold, served as financial security for the peasant; it is from this that the term “piggy-bank savings” comes.

The English clergyman Thomas Malthus (1766 to 1834) wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, in which he stated that a population that is unchecked increases in geometric fashion. The consequences of unrestrained population growth, in Malthus’ words, would lead to “misery and vice.” These would tend to act as “natural restraints” on population growth. Today we understand that there are at least two kinds of checks to set the upper limit for a population: external or environmental factors (including limited food, space, or other resources) and self-regulating factors (such as fewer births, deliberate killing of offspring, or an increased death rate due to accidents or disease). Agriculture in its most efficient form can change the environmental restraint so that far larger human populations are possible; however, even here there are limits. It is estimated that without the potato as a food source, all the land in Ireland could support a population of only 5 million if the people were fed on bread. Compounding the problem caused by potato blight, there was a worldwide shortage of bread grains at a price the Irish could afford. Between 1798, when Thomas Malthus’ Essay on Population was published, and 1845 there were 20 failures of the Irish potato crop, all leading to starvation, disease, and debility. These were true famines. During the same period, only three famines occurred in England. According to Malthusian doctrine, any increase in the Irish population would be due to their carnal and vicious nature. Famine would control this population explosion, and in Malthusian terms this was deserved. The Irish, the British opined, were hopelessly inferior and incurably filled with vice and so they deserved the famine, which would exert control over their excessive breeding. In effect, the Malthusian theory was used to reinforce British prejudice against the Irish and to justify the British failure to provide relief. There was also a laissez faire economic policy under which the British government adopted a hands-off policy. The attitude in Great Britain was to let the market run its course. By the end of 1846, not a single potato was left in Ireland. In addition, that year had one of the coldest winters on record. The level of starvation among the people soared.

Although in 1845 to 1846 Britain’s Prime Minister, Robert Peel, attempted some countermeasures, including the importation of corn for resale in Ireland, no one knew how to cook it, and in return the starving and enfeebled Irish were required to perform public work by building roads, walls, piers, and bridges. It helped only a little. Soup kitchens were started, but they dispensed essentially flavored water. The churches offered little hope since the Church of Ireland was entitled to collect taxes from tenants regardless of their religion. Indeed, the Catholic Church increased its ownership of property in Ireland during the famine. The Church was vehemently on the side of the absentee English landlords, and it was left to the Quakers to seek long-term relief for the Irish.

In late 1846 the British Parliament came under the control of a new Prime Minister, John Russell, who reduced the British financial commitment to Ireland. This placed a greater burden on landlords and private charities. The public works schemes were inefficient and bureaucratic, and the wages paid were very poor and very late. Tenant farmers held short-term leases that were payable each 6 months. If the tenants failed to pay their rent, they were evicted and their homes were burned.

There was a severe winter in 1846 to 1847. In the early months of 1847—called Black ’47 (now an Irish Rock Group)—there were reports of dogs eating dead bodies in the streets. Public works projects were abandoned, and poorhouses were established. The poorhouses (also called workhouses) were mismanaged, overcrowded, and filthy, and the inmates were forced to wear prison-like uniforms. They subsisted on a watery oatmeal. To limit the number of people seeking relief, the Poor Law Extension Act was passed in 1847. This prevented tenant farmers with over a quarter of an acre of land from receiving assistance. In 1847 more than a million died of starvation or diseases such as typhus and cholera; this was a peak emigration year. Indeed, during the next 4 years, 2 million Irish emigrated from Ireland, never to return.

Conditions were made worse because the British government tried to placate the politically powerful landowners and allowed continued export of food from Ireland while preventing importation of food. The British idea of free trade led to the notion that assistance would weaken the resolve of the Irish peasants. The primary goal of the British was economic: extract the greatest amount of resources and exports from their colonies, thereby benefiting the bankers and landowners. One letter writer to the London Times stated that “Giving more money to Irish relief would be as ineffectual as throwing a sackful of gold into their plentiful bogs.” A Chancellor of the Exchequer said, “Except through purgatory of misery and starvation I cannot see how Ireland is to emerge into a state of anything approaching quiet or prosperity.” In addition, the Irish peasants were so weak from starvation and disease that they could not work the land. Compounding this problem were economic factors: the landowners, in order to meet their losses due to the famine, raised the rents of the tenants, which in turn led to nonpayment, eviction, and destruction of the houses of the tenant farmers. Between 1849 and 1854, at least 500,000 people were evicted. Thousands more were thrown out without official sanction, and homelessness became as much a problem as hunger.

At first the potato failure was believed to be due to God’s anger over the excesses of the people. Later, it was shown that the failure was due to “late blight,” a disease causing large necrotic areas (called blight) on potato leaves that occurs in the late part of the growing season, e.g., August and September. Late blight reappeared again in 1848 and 1849, and in some places 1849 was as bad as 1847. Many people saw emigration as their only solution. According to the Poor Laws, the landlords were to support the peasants who were sent to the workhouse. This cost £12 a year per person. Some landlords, however, economized and paid for the passage of the peasants to Canada, which cost only £6 a head! The very poor migrated to England—1.5 million went to Liverpool, London, Manchester, and Birmingham—whereas those who were slightly better off and could afford the cost of passage emigrated to the United States. Only about one-fifth of the migrants survived the trip across the Atlantic because of their poor health, the fact that it took weeks to months to cross, and no food was provided on board ship. These were not passenger ships: they were ships ordinarily used for hauling timber and cattle. There was no place to cook and no place to put the sick, and there were no proper latrines. The filth and stench below deck were overwhelming. Many of the passengers carried lice and were infected with typhus. Because of the high death rate on board, they were called “coffin ships.” And it is a bitter irony that in Ireland during this period, while people were starving, grain was still being exported. The potato famine changed the structure of landholding in Ireland—the poorest were evicted, but the landlords were also financially ruined, crushed by the burden of falling income and higher taxation. Many landlords sold out to larger landowners, who in turn were also unpopular with their tenants.