Chapter 607 Foot Washing Tax
"Oh my God! Oh God! What a terrible disaster!"
"It's a curse!"
"The end!"
A scream woke up Scathach, who was still sleeping.
"Sister, sister is not good!" Mickey and Tommy said in tears.
Scathach asked with concern: "What happened?"
"It's potatoes! They were fine yesterday, but today the potatoes that were growing well all turned rotten and smelly overnight! My father dug out the potatoes from the ground, but they fell apart like cow dung."
"Oh! God!"
Although she had anticipated this possibility before, she almost fainted when she heard that all the potatoes that her family relied on for survival in previous years were spoiled.
Immediately, Scathach began to vomit violently. In fact, when people are extremely frightened, it is easy to cause stomach cramps and even vomiting.
When they came to the field, they found that it was already full of people. There were people beating their chests and cursing, as well as the crying of women and children.
There was no sound other than that. Even the wisest and most knowledgeable elders in the village were helpless in the face of this situation.
Those potatoes that were growing happily before seemed to wither overnight. Some people reluctantly tore off the withered leaves in an attempt to isolate the curse with "broken branches".
But past experience is of no use. Once one leaf begins to wilt, the same thing will happen to other leaves within a few days, until the crop dies completely.
Despair and death enveloped the entire island of Ireland. In fact, it was the previous rain that brought the potato late blight bacteria to the island of Ireland, spreading the bacteria through water vapor circulation.
On the other hand, potato late blight also appeared in Franz's experimental fields on the island of Ireland, but Bordeaux mixture still had a certain effect, and some potatoes were not infected with this terrible bacteria.
However, these potatoes cannot solve the food ration problem for the eight million people on the island of Ireland, and it is not easy to transport large amounts of anhydrous copper sulfate and quicklime to the island of Ireland.
Bordeaux mixture is a sky-blue colloidal suspension prepared from about 500 grams of copper sulfate, 500 grams of slaked lime and 50 kilograms of water.
Fortunately, for the problem of quicklime, it can be calcined using the ancient method, but anhydrous copper sulfate cannot be produced with Ireland's industrial capacity.
Importing from Austria requires a lot of freight, and the British also have to pay a large tariff.
As for buying directly from the British, the cost will be even greater, because Austria's chemical product production capacity at this time is far higher than the former.
At the same time, doing so is no different from capitalizing on the enemy. Although Franz spent a lot of money to purchase the materials, in the end the British can definitely claim it as their own credit. After all, the raw materials come from Great Britain.
In fact, when the British government saw that the incident was exposed, it had already begun to blame it. Since the British had not established germ theory at that time, the British could not give a reasonable explanation.
According to the authoritative "guess" of the Royal Society of Science at the time, the potato withering phenomenon occurring at this time was because the potatoes were infected with farmers' athlete's foot.
What’s even more outrageous is that this statement was unanimously recognized by Queen Victoria and the British Parliament. They felt that the best way to avoid this situation was that colonial people should wash their feet more often.
(At that time Ireland was under the administration of the Colonial Office.)
So British officials introduced a foot-washing tax overnight, stipulating that Irish people must pay a certain amount of fines if they do not wash their feet and cause potatoes to wither.
The original intention of this law was to solve the potato blight problem on the island of Ireland, but it completely backfired in the colonies.
Officials took advantage of their power and this special decree to start making money crazily. After all, if you expect a group of guys who can't even afford shoes to wash their feet, it's just nonsense.
Soon uprisings broke out in Ireland against this decree, because there was another sport in Ireland at this time.
That was the second enclosure movement, but this time the people who ate people on the surface changed from sheep to cows and wheat.
The previous document mentioned that due to the Corn Laws and the development of the British economy, the livestock industry in Ireland became prosperous again.
However, the "Second Enclosure Movement" was hindered by the struggles of O'Connell and Irish farmers. However, as the prices of livestock products continued to increase, coupled with the promulgation of the "foot-washing tax".
British landowners found a breaking point and drove farmers off their land.
Those who couldn't survive would naturally rebel. Normally, the British government would choose to suppress it forcefully. But at this time, Robert Peel was already overwhelmed by international affairs, and with the Whigs stirring up trouble, he didn't want a fire in his backyard.
At the same time, Prince Albert also discovered through visits that the situation in Ireland was completely different from what the colonial secretary said. At least this foot-washing tax didn't help.
As a result, Irish farmers regained their land, but a massive reduction in potato production was unavoidable.
At this time, these farmers either give up the land they depend on for survival, or borrow usury from the landlords. But both ultimately lead to the same result.
In fact, in order to prevent the further spread of blight, many farmers choose to forcibly dig out potatoes that are not yet fully mature to reduce losses.
"It looks like a lot of people won't make it through this winter."
Scathach's father said, and Scathach nodded heavily. After all, she had seen it last winter.
There are several families missing in the village. Although the priests said that they went to other countries, isn't the Kingdom of Heaven another country?
At least the Kingdom of Heaven shouldn't be in a place like England, Scathach believed.
Finally, the first healthy and complete potato was dug out. It seemed that God still favored Ireland and did not let all the potatoes turn into paste.
(Potatoes infected with potato late blight will turn to mush.)
Scathach's father was also very excited and said to her quickly: "Try it."
The latter took the potato thrown by the former and wiped it vigorously with the corner of his skirt, and then took a bite. It was crispy and delicious, but not rotten inside.
If the inside is rotten, you can only throw it away. After all, if you eat too many rotten potatoes, even a pig will die.
"It's delicious!" Scathach's eyes narrowed into a thin line.
"That's good!" Her father also laughed.
In fact, potatoes are not suitable for eating raw, especially the varieties grown in Ireland at this time, but people at that time were not so particular.
Then the shovel touched the ground again, slowly digging into it, lifting up the blackened soil.
Scathach couldn't help but hold her breath before the potato roots were exposed. She was a little afraid that she would see that the potatoes had turned into a mess, but fortunately that did not happen.
However, not everyone is so lucky. Some people don't even have a whole potato in their fields. Their fate can be imagined.
After completing this early harvest, the Jennings family returned to their home and looked at the bags of harvest but were not happy at all.
“The rumor of a bad potato harvest is unfounded.”—The Times.