The Irish Potato FamineIn the mid-18th century, Ireland was an agricultural nation. There were approximately eight million people living in the country. Most people lived in extremely harsh conditions. Additionally, there was a low percentage of educated people. According to The History Place, “Only about a quarter of the population could read and write.” Reasonably, farming became one of the most popular professions at that time. Before the potato famine, the Irish were able to grow large quantities of healthy potatoes. Landowners could benefit from the production provided the potatoes did not deplete the soil. High potato prices encouraged Ireland's cultivation and more people began to use existing agricultural land. Suddenly, Ireland's economic situation changed. As Mises Daily points out, "the repeal had a considerable impact on the capital value of agricultural land in Ireland and reduced the demand for labor as Irish land shifted from grain production to pasture" . Yet when the potato plains turned black and curved sharply in September 1845, British authorities speculated that Ireland's food shortage would disappear by the next harvest. This speculation was based on food shortages in recent years. Irish farmers also complained that they had been farming for decades, but had never experienced such strange failure. Meanwhile, many Irish people were formulating their own unscientific theories about the cause of the famine. In fact, an airborne fungus called Phytophthora infestans originally traveled from North America to England. As the wind carried the fungus to healthy Irish potato farms, the fungus infected a single potato plant within seconds. On a... middle of paper...... to the importation of all kinds of human foods - that is, the total and absolute abrogation forever of all duties on all articles of subsistence,” according to his memoirs. Peel also believed that the only way to relieve hunger in Ireland was to increase food supplies. However, throughout the Irish Potato Famine, the problem was not lack of food. The cause of the problem was lack of demand. Due to the high price of food, many people could not afford it. When Peel faced this situation, he did not distribute free food to the poor or stop the export of food. According to mtholyoke.edu, “There is evidence that during much of the famine, imports exceeded exports. However, stopping exports from the most deprived places could have saved lives. Things changed with the enactment of the Irish Poor Law. Irish