Editing Famine (section)

===Attempts at famine alleviation===
[[File:Skibbereen by James Mahony, 1847.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Skibbereen]], Ireland during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]], 1847 illustration by [[James Mahony]] for the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'']]

Because of the severity of famine, it was a chief concern for governments and other authorities. In pre-industrial Europe, preventing famine, and ensuring timely food supplies, was one of the chief concerns of many governments, although they were severely limited in their options due to limited levels of external trade, infrastructure, and bureaucracy generally too rudimentary to effect real relief. Most governments were concerned by famine because it could lead to [[revolt]] and other forms of social disruption.

By the mid-19th century and the onset of the [[Industrial Revolution]], it became possible for governments to alleviate the effects of famine through [[price controls]], large scale importation of food products from foreign markets, stockpiling, [[rationing]], regulation of production and [[charity (practice)|charity]]. The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine of 1845]] in Ireland was one of the first famines to feature such intervention, although the government response was often lackluster. The initial response of the British government to the early phase of the famine was "prompt and relatively successful", according to [[F. S. L. Lyons]].<ref>{{citation |title=Ireland since the famine |first=Francis Stewart Leland |last=Lyons |publisher=Fontana |year=1973 |page=30}}</ref> Confronted by widespread crop failure in the autumn of 1845, Prime Minister [[Robert Peel|Sir Robert Peel]] purchased £100,000 worth of maize and [[cornmeal]] secretly from America. [[Barings Bank|Baring Brothers & Co]] initially acted as purchasing agents for the Prime Minister. The government hoped that they would not "stifle private enterprise" and that their actions would not act as a disincentive to local relief efforts. Due to weather conditions, the first shipment did not arrive in Ireland until the beginning of February 1846.{{sfn|Kinealy|1995|p=38}} The maize corn was then re-sold for a penny a pound.<ref>{{citation |title=Disraeli |last=Blake |first=Robert |lccn=67011837 |series=University paperbacks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QpRnAAAAMAAJ |year=1967 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=221 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916141521/https://books.google.com/books?id=QpRnAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1846, Peel moved to repeal the [[Corn Laws]], [[tariff]]s on grain which kept the price of bread artificially high. The famine situation worsened during 1846 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in that year did little to help the starving Irish; the measure split the Conservative Party, leading to the fall of Peel's ministry.{{sfn|Blake|1967|pp=221–241}} In March, Peel set up a programme of public works in Ireland.<ref>{{citation |title=The Great Hunger |first=Cecil |last=Woodham-Smith |year=1962 |pages=78–86}}</ref>

[[File:Famine in India Natives Waiting for Relief in Bangalore.jpg|thumb|left|upright|People waiting for famine relief in [[Bangalore]], India (from the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'', 1877)]]

Despite this promising start, the measures undertaken by Peel's successor, [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]], proved comparatively "inadequate" as the crisis deepened. Russell's ministry introduced public works projects, which by December 1846 employed some half million Irish and proved impossible to administer. The government was influenced by a [[laissez-faire]] belief that the market would provide the food needed. It halted government food and relief works, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in [[workhouse]]s through the [[Irish Poor Laws|Poor Law]], the latter through [[soup kitchen]]s.<ref>{{citation |title=Ireland: History of a Nation |first=David |last=Ross |year=2002 |publisher=New Lanark: Geddes & Grosset |isbn=978-1-84205-164-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/irelandhistoryof0000ross/page/224 224, 311] |url=https://archive.org/details/irelandhistoryof0000ross/page/224 }}</ref>[[Image:Apocalypse vasnetsov.jpg|thumb|''[[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (painting)|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]'', an 1887 painting by Russian artist [[Viktor Vasnetsov]]. Depicted from left to right are Death, Famine, War, and Conquest.|294x294px]]

A systematic attempt at creating the necessary regulatory framework for dealing with famine was developed by the [[British Raj]] in the 1880s. In order to comprehensively address the issue of famine, the British created an Indian Famine commission to recommend steps that the government would be required to take in the event of a famine.<ref name="L. Brennan"/><ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Historical responses to famine|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine/277562/|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|access-date=8 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Scales">{{cite journal |last1=Reza |first1=A. |last2=Tomczyk |first2=B. |last3=Aguayo |first3=V. M |last4=Zagre |first4=N. M |last5=Goumbi |first5=K. |last6=Blanton |first6=C. |last7=Talley |first7=L. |title=Retrospective determination of whether famine existed in Niger, 2005: two stage cluster survey |journal=BMJ |date=2 October 2008 |volume=337 |issue=oct02 1 |pages=a1622 |doi=10.1136/bmj.a1622 |pmid=18832413 |pmc=2658864}}
* {{cite journal |title=Retrospective determination of whether famine existed in Niger |journal=Field Exchange 35 |date=3 January 2009 |page=9 |url=https://www.ennonline.net/fex/35/retrospective |access-date=20 April 2019 |archive-date=20 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420123754/https://www.ennonline.net/fex/35/retrospective |url-status=live }}</ref> The Famine Commission issued a series of government guidelines and regulations on how to respond to famines and food shortages called the Famine Code. The famine code was also one of the first attempts to scientifically predict famine in order to mitigate its effects. These were finally passed into law in 1883 under [[George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon|Lord Ripon]].

The [[Indian Famine Codes|Code]] introduced the first [[famine scale]]: three levels of [[food insecurity]] were defined: near-scarcity, scarcity, and famine. "Scarcity" was defined as three successive years of [[crop failure]], [[crop yield]]s of one-third or one-half normal, and large populations in distress. "Famine" further included a rise in food prices above 140% of "normal", the movement of people in search of food, and widespread mortality.<ref name="L. Brennan">{{Citation |last=Brennan |first=L |year=1984 |contribution=The development of the India Famine Codes: personalities, policies and politics |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoNS2fM8N0kC |editor-last=Currey |editor-first=Bruce |editor2-last=Hugo |editor2-first=Graeme |title=Famine as a geographical phenomenon |edition=Illustrated |series=GeoJournal library |publisher=Springer |volume=1 |pages=91–110 |isbn=978-90-277-1762-7}}</ref> The Commission identified that the loss of wages from lack of employment of agricultural labourers and artisans were the cause of famines. The Famine Code applied a strategy of generating employment for these sections of the population and relied on open-ended public works to do so.<ref>{{Citation |title=Hunger and Public Action |last1=Drèze |first1=Jean |last2=Sen |first2=Amartya Kumar |isbn=978-0-19-828365-2 |lccn=89025504 |series=Studies in Development Economics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OjCHQR-M0ocC |year=1991 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford; New York |author-link1=Jean Drèze |author-link2=Amartya Sen |page=98}}</ref>