The Famine Statistics of modern times show how necessary those precautions were. If the Round Towers of Ireland had still been used in the Christian Era as granaries, and well stored with corn, instead of being turned into towers for hanging church bells in, how many precious lives would have been saved during all those famines which devastated that beautiful island!

The following is a Chronological Table of Famines[[84]] that visited Ireland within the Christian Era.

A.D.
10-15A general fruitlessness, giving rise to famine and great mortality.
76Great scarcity.
192General scarcity; bad harvest; mortality and emigration, “so that lands and houses, territories and tribes, were emptied.”—First notice of emigration.
535Destruction of food and scarcity, lasted four years.
664Great famine.
669Great scarcity; and in following year.
695-700Famine and pestilence during three years, “so that men ate each other.”
759Great famine throughout the kingdom; and more or less for several years.
768Famine and an earthquake.
772Famine from drought.
824-25Great dearth.
895-97Famine from invasion of locusts.
963-64An intolerable famine, “so that parents sold their children for food.”
1047Great famine and snow.
1116Great famine, “during which the people even ate each other.”
1153Great famine in Munster, and spread all over Ireland.
1188Great scarcity of food in north of Ireland.
1200 “A cold, foodless year.”
1203A great famine, “so that priests ate flesh in Lent.”
1227A great famine throughout the country.
1262Great destruction of people from plague and hunger.
1271Pestilence and famine in the whole of Ireland.
1295Great dearth during this and the previous and following years.
1302Famine.
1314Famine and various distempers.
1316Great dearth. Eight captured Scots eaten at siege of Carrickfergus.
1317A great famine throughout the country in consequence of Bruce’s invasion.
1332A peck of wheat sold for 22 shillings.
1339A general famine.
1410“A great famine.”
1433Famine of great severity.
1447Great famine in the Spring.
1491Such a famine that it was called, “The Dismal Year.”
1497“Intolerable famine throughout all Ireland—many perished.”
1522A great famine.
1586Extreme famine consequent on the wars of Desmond. Human flesh said to have been eaten.
1588-89Great famine, “when one did eate another for hunger.”
1601-03Great scarcity and want. Cannibalism again reported.
1650-51A famine throughout the country. Sieges of Limerick and Galway.
1690Famine and disease.
1727-29Corn very dear. “Many hundreds perished.” Emigration.
1739-40Potatoes destroyed by frost; wheat 42 shillings per kilderkin.
1765Great scarcity; distilling and exportation of corn prohibited by Act of Parliament.
1822Dreadful famine, produced by failure of potato crop. “While, however, the agriculturists of the continent were suffering from an abundance, a grievous famine arose in Ireland, showing the anomalies of her situation, resulting either from the staple food of her population differing from that of surrounding nations, or the limitation of her commercial exchanges with her neighbours. Her distresses from scarcity were aggravated by the agrarian outrages, originating in the pressure of tythes and rack-rents on the peasantry and small farmers. Several of the ringleaders of these disorders were apprehended by the civil and military power, and great numbers executed or transported.”—Wade’s Brit. Hist.
1831Famine; Parliament granted £40,000 for relief; £74,410 subscriptions in England.
1845Famine; the Government expended £850,000 in relief of sufferers.
1846-47Great potato famine; Parliament advanced nearly £10,000,000; about 275,000 persons are supposed to have perished. The famine in the whole lasted over nearly six years; the population became reduced by about 2,500,000. The emigration to America was 1,180,409, and 1,029,552 are said to have died from starvation and pestilence consequent upon it. This is probably over-stated. It is further said that about 25 per cent. of the emigrants died within twelve months of leaving. The Commerce and Navigation Laws were repealed.

The above table shows how terribly the Irish people have suffered from want of food, and how in their hunger they have been compelled to have recourse to cannibalism in order to save themselves from death by starvation. This sad picture should be a lesson to fanatics like those who, in their misdirected zeal to serve their Master in heaven, destroyed the granaries of the ancient people, mistaking them to be temples dedicated to heathen gods. For, had the pyramids, which appear to have existed in large numbers all over Ireland, been filled during the years of plenty, and the grain kept in reserve until the time of scarcity, there would then have been sufficient food not only for the inhabitants of Ireland, but also for the wants of the sister islands.

The following chronological table of the famines that have devastated England, Scotland and Wales, is taken from Walford’s Famines of the World. It presents a sad picture of human misery and wretchedness, which might have been prevented by wisdom and forethought.

Table of Famines in England, Scotland, and Wales.

A.D.
54England. Grievous famine
104England and Scotland. Famine.
107Britain. From long rains.
119Britain. “After a pillar of fire seen several nights in the air.”
151Wales. Grievous.
160England. Multitudes starved.
173England. After severe frost and snow.
228Scotland. “Thousands were starved.”
238Scotland. “Most grievous.”
259Wales. Thousands were “pined to death.”
272Britain. People ate the bark of trees and roots.
288Britain. Famine all through.
298Wales. After a comet.
306Scotland. Thousands died; most grievous and fatal for four years.—Short.
310England. 40,000 perished.
325Britain. Generally, severe famine.
439Britain. After a comet.
466Britain. “And bad fatal air.”—Short.
480Scotland. After a comet.
515Britain. “Most afflictive.”
523Scotland. “Terrible.”
527North Wales. Famine.
531South Wales. And a small plague.
537Scotland. Dearth; also in Wales.
576Scotland. “Fatal.”
590England. From a tempest that raised a great flood.
592England. Drought from 10th January to September; and locusts.
605England. From heat and drought.
625Britain. Grievous.
667Scotland. Grievous.
680Britain. From three years’ drought.
695-700England. Famine and pestilence during three years, “so that men ate each other.”
712Wales. Famine.
730England, Wales and Scotland. Great famine.
746Wales. Dearth.
748Scotland. Famine.
774Scotland. “With plague.”
791Wales. Grievous.
792Scotland. Dearth.
793England. “After many meteors”; and in other parts of the world.
803Scotland. “Terrible.”
822-23England. “Thousands starve”; also in Scotland, according to Short.
836Wales. “The ground covered with dead bodies of men and beasts.”—Short.
856Scotland. A four years’ famine began.
863Scotland. With a plague.
872England. “From ugly locusts.”
887England. “Grievous two years.”
890Scotland. Great dearth.
900England. Famine.
931Wales. Famine.
936Scotland. After a comet; four years, “till people began to devour one another.”—Short.
954England, Wales, and Scotland. Great famine, which lasts four years.
962England. Famine caused by frost.
969England. “All grain burnt by the winds.”—Short.
975England. Famine scoured the hills.
976England. This was the “great famine,” micla hungor.—John of Brompton.
988England. From rains and barren land.
989England. “Grievous, from a rainy winter; bad spring; neither ploughing nor sowing; snowy harvest.”
1004England. “Such a famine prevailed as no man could remember.”
1005England. “This year was the great famine in England.” Sweyn the Dane quits in consequence.
1008Wales. Attended with plague.
1012England. Endless multitudes died of famine.
1025England. From rains, and plague.
1031England. From great rains and locusts.—Short.
1042 England. About this time such a famine came on that a sextarius of wheat, which is usually a load for one horse, sold for five solidi and more.—Henry of Huntingdon. Lasted seven years.
1047England. From snow and frost.
1047-48Scotland. Famine-extending over two years.
1050England. Great famine and mortality; from barrenness of the land.
1053England. Famine after a comet; lasted two years.
1068England. Famine and plague after a severe winter.
1069England. Normans desolated England, and in the following year famine spread over the northern counties of England, “so that man, driven by hunger, ate human, dog, and horse flesh”; some to sustain a miserable life sold themselves for slaves. All land lying “between Durham and Yorke lay waste, without inhabitants or people to till the ground, for the space of nine years, except only the territory of St. John of Bewlake.”—(Beverley.)
“Divers other parts of his realm were so wasted with his wars that, for want both of husbandry and habitation, a great dearth did ensue, whereby many were forced to eat horses, dogs, cats, rats, and other loathsome and vile vermin; yea, some abstained not from the flesh of men. This famine and desolation did specially rage in the north parts of the realm.”—Harleian Miscellany, III. p. 151.
1073England. Famine, followed by mortality so fierce that “the living could take no care of the sick, nor bury the dead.”—Henry of Huntingdon.
1086England. A great murrain of animals, and such intemperate weather that many died of fever and famine.—Henry de Knyghton. Excessive rains.—Short.
1087England. Pestilence followed by famine; great suffering.
1093England. Great famine and mortality.—Stow.
1096England. “Heavy-timed hunger that severely oppressed the earth.”—Saxon Chronicle. “Summer rain, tempests, and bad air.”—Short.
1099England. Famine from rains and floods.
1106England. From barren land; then plague.
1111England. Winter long and very severe; great scarcity followed.
1117England. From tempest, hail, and a year’s incessant rains.
1121-22England. “Great famine from long and cruel frosts.”
1124England. “Such a famine prevailed that everywhere in cities, villages, and cross-roads lifeless bodies lie unburied.”
“By means of changing the coine all things became very deere, whereof an extreame famine did arise, and afflict the multitude of the people, even to death.”—Penkethman.
1125England. Great flood on St. Lawrence’s Day; famine in consequence of destruction of crops, &c.
1126England. “Incessant rains during the summer, when followed in all England a most unheard-of scarcity. A sextarius of wheat sold for 20 shillings.”
1135-37England. Great drought and famine.
1141England. Famine, said to have lasted twelve years.—Short.
1154England. From rains, frost, tempest, thunder, and lightning.
1175England. Pestilence, followed by great dearth.
1176Wales. A great famine and mortality.
1183England and Wales. A great famine severely afflicted both England and Wales.
1193-96England. Famine occasioned by incessant rains. “The common people (Vulgus pauperum) perished everywhere for lack of food; and on the footsteps of famine the fiercest pestilence followed, in the form of an acute fever.”—Walter Hemingford.
1203England. A great mortality and famine, from long rains.
1209England. Famine from a rainy summer and severe winter.
1224England. A very dry winter and bad seed-time, whence followed a great famine.
1235England. Famine and plague; 20,000 persons die in London; people eat horseflesh, bark of trees, grass, &c.—Short.
1239England. Great famine, “people eat their children.”—Short.
1248England. “By reason of embasing the coin of great penury followed.”
1252England. No rain from Whitsuntide to autumn; no grass; hence arose a severe famine; great mortality of man and cattle; dearness of grain and scarcity of fruit.
1257England. The inundations of autumn destroyed the grain and fruit, and pestilence followed.
1258England. North winds in spring destroyed vegetation; food failed, the preceding harvest having been small, and innumerable multitudes of poor people died. Fifty shiploads of wheat, barley, and bread were procured from Germany; but citizens of London were forbidden by proclamation against dealing in same. “A great dearth followed this wet year pest, for a quarter of wheat was sold for 15 and 20 shillings, but the worst was in the end; there could be none found for money when—though many poor people were constrained to eat barks of trees and horseflesh, but many starved for want of food—20,000 (as it was said) in London.”—Penkethman.
1271England. A violent tempest and inundation, followed by a severe famine in the entire district of Canterbury.
1286England. Short speaks of a twenty-three years’ famine commencing this year.
1289England. A tempest destroyed the seed, and corn rose to a great price.
1294England. Severe famine; many thousands of the poor died.
1295England. No grain or fruits, “so that the poor died of hunger.”—Camden. Hail, great concussion of elements.—Short
1297Scotland. “Calamitous” famine and pestilence.
1298England. 26 Edward I. “A great famine in England, chiefly want of wine; so that the same could scarcely be had to minister the communion in the churches.”—Penkethman.
1302England and Scotland. Famine.
1314England. Grains spoiled by the rains. Famine “so dreadful that the people devoured the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and vermin.” Parliament passed a measure limiting the price of provisions.
1316England. Universal dearth, and such a mortality, particularly of the poor, followed, that the living could scarcely bury the dead. Royal proclamation: no more beer to be made.
1321England. Famine again; this is regarded by some writers as the last serious famine in this country.
1335England. Famine occasioned by long rains.
1336Scotland. Desolated by a famine.
1341England, Scotland. Great dearth in this and following year. People ate horses, dogs, cats, &c., to sustain life.—Holinshed.
1353England. Great famine.—Rapin.
1355England. Great scarcity; grain brought from Ireland afforded much relief.
1358England. “A great dearth and pestilence happened in England, which was called the second pestilence.”—Penkethman.
1369England. Great pestilence among men and larger animals; followed by inundations and extensive destruction of grain. Grain very dear.
1390England. Great famine arising from scarcity of money to buy food.
1392England. Great scarcity for two years; people ate unripe fruit, and suffered greatly from “Flux.” The Corporation of London advanced money and corn to the poor at easy rates.—Stow.
Short attributes the famine of these three years to the “hoarding of corn.”
Penkethman gives further details regarding the assistance rendered by the Corporation of London, as follows: “The Mayor and Citizens of London took out of the Orphans’ chest in their Guildhall, 2,000 marks to buy corn and other victualls from beyond the sea; and the Aldermen each of them layd out twenty pound to the like purpose of buying corn; which was bestowed in divers places, where the poore might buy at an appointed price, and such as lacked money to pay doune, did put in surity to pay in the yeare following: in which yeare, when Harvest came, the fields yielded plentifull increase, and so the price of Corne began to decrease,” p. 68.
1427England. Famine from great rains.
1429Scotland. Dearth.
1437-38England. Wheat rose from its ordinary price of 4s. to 4s. 6d. per quarter to 26s. 8d.
Bread was made from fern-roots.—Stow.
Rains and tempests.—Short.
1438England. “In the 17th yeere of Henry the Sixt, by meanes of great tempests, immeasurable windes and raines, there arose such a scarcitie that wheat was sold in some places for 2 shillings 6 pence the bushell.”—Penkethman.
1439England. (18 Hen. VI.). “Wheat was sold at London for 3s. the bushell, mault at 13s. the quarter, and oates at 8d. the bushell, which caused men to eat beanes, peas, and barley, more than in an hundred years before: wherefore Stephen Browne, then maior, sent into Pruse (Prussia), and caused to be brought to London many ships laden with rye, which did much good; for bread-corne was so scarce in England that poor people made their breade of ferne rootes.”—Penkethman.
1440England. A scarcity. Scotland.—A famine.
1486England. “Famine sore.”
1491England. Considerable scarcity.
1494England. Great scarcity and high prices.
1521England. Famine and mortality. “Wheat sold in London for 20s. a quarter.”
1523England. Severe famine.
1527England. (19 Hen. VIII.). “Such scarcitie of bread was at London and throughout England that many dyed for want thereof. The King sent to the Citie, of his owne provision, 600 quarters: the bread carts then coming from Stratford (where nearly all the bakings were, probably on account of proximity to Epping Forest) towards London, were met at the Mile End by a great number of citizens, so that the maior and sheriffes were forced to goe and rescue the same, and see them brought to the markets appointed, wheat being then at 15s. the quarter. But shortly after the merchants of the Stiliard (Steelyard) brought from Danske (Danzic) such store of wheat and rye, that it was better cheape at London than in any other part of the Realme.”—Penkethman.
1545England. A wonderful dearth and extreme prices.
1549England. Famine from neglect of agriculture.
1556-58England. Famine from great rains, bad and inconstant seasons; heat and long south winds.—Short.
1563London. Famine and pestilence, said to have carried off 20,000 people.
1565British Isles. Extended famine. £2,000,000 said to have been expended in importation of grain.
1586England. “In the 29th yeare of Queen Elizabeth, about January, Her Majesty observing the general Dearthe of Corne, and other Victual, growne partly through the unseasonablenesse of the year then passed, and partly through the uncharitable greediness of the Corne-masters, but especially through the unlawful and overmuch transporting of graine in forreine parts; by the advice of Her most Hon. Privy Council, published a Proclamation, and a Booke of Orders, to be taken by the Justices for reliefe of the Poore [commencement of the poor law], notwithstanding all which the excessive prices of graine still encreased: so that Wheat in meale, was sold at London for 8s. the Bushel, and in some other parts of the Realme above that price.”—Penkethman.
1594England. Famine. During the siege of Paris by Henry IV. this year, owing to famine, bread which had been sold, while any remained, for a crown a-pound, was at last made from the bones of the charnel-house of the Holy Innocents.—Hinault.
1595England. (36 Elizabeth.) “By the late Transportations of graine into forreine parts, the same was here grown of an excessive price, as in some parts of this Realme, from 14s. to 4 markes the quarter, and more, as the Poore did feele; and all other things whatsoever were made to sustain man, were likewise raysed, without all conscience and reason. For remedie whereof our Merchants brought back from Danske (Danzic) much rye and wheat, but passing deere; though not of the best, yet serving the turn in such extremities. Some ’Prentices and other young people about the Citie of London, being pinched of their Victuals, more than they had beene accustomed, tooke Butter from the market folkes in Southwarke, paying but 3d. where the owners would not afford it under 5d. by the pound. For which disorder the said young men were punished on the 27th June, by whipping, setting on the Pillorie, and long imprisonment.”—Penkethman.
1630England. Dearth; bread made of turnips, &c.
1649Scotland and North of England. “From rains and wars”; also following year.
1649Lancashire. Occasioned by the ravages of the armies; and the plague follows it.—Salmon’s Chronological Historian.
1694-99Scotland. Famine; England, great dearth, “from rains, colds, frosts, snows; all bad weathers.”—Short.
1700England. From rain and cold of previous year.
1709Scotland. From rain and cold; also in England.
1740-41England. “From frost, cold, exporting and hoarding up corn.”—Short.
1741Scotland. From “terrible shake-winds when corn was ready for reaping.”—Short.
1748England. Extended famine.
1766Scotland. “The magistrates of Edinburgh and Glasgow have put a stop to the exportation of grain, tallow, and butter, in their respective jurisdictions; a power which the magistrates of London do not seem to possess.”—Gentleman’s Magazine, February.
1795England. Scarcity of food severely felt.
1801United Kingdom. Great scarcity; flour obtained from America; Committees of both Houses of Parliament were appointed to inquire into means of supplying food.
1812United Kingdom. Great scarcity in England and Ireland.

To this list of heart-rending desolation caused by famine, may be added many other cases which have occurred more recently, and among them the appalling famine in China—a kingdom well provided with granaries constructed by the ancient founder, Moses. From the account given by a traveller, who marvelled at such solitary hills standing in plains surrounded by fertile corn-fields, it may safely be inferred that these Pyramids or Storehouses still remain unopened, and, consequently, are stored with the produce of the fields that surround them. So that had the Emperors of China been aware of the existence of such treasure-houses in their extensive dominions, peopled by innumerable millions of human beings, they would never have had the sorrow of reading such a harrowing account of misery suffered by their subjects, arising from want of food, which was so near at hand! This severe famine visited China in A.D. 1877-78, and is thus chronicled by Walford:—

“North China.—A telegram dated 26th January 1878, says: ‘Appalling famine raging throughout four provinces North China. Nine million people reported destitute. Children daily sold in markets for (raising means to procure) food. Foreign Relief Committee appeal to England and America for assistance.’ Total population of districts affected, seventy millions. Mr. Fredk. H. Balfour, of Shanghai, said: ‘The people’s faces are black with hunger; they are dying by thousands upon thousands. Women and girls and boys are openly offered for sale to any chance wayfarer. When I left the country, a respectable married woman could be easily bought for six dollars, and a little girl for two. In cases, however, where it was found impossible to dispose of their children, parents have been known to kill them sooner than witness their prolonged sufferings, in many instances throwing themselves afterwards down wells, or committing suicide by arsenic.’

“‘Lord Derby received a report drawn up by Mr. Mayers, Chinese Secretary of the Legation at Pekin, upon the distress which the drought of the last two years has caused in the northern and central provinces of China. This famine, it seems, has been most severely felt in the district furthest from the coast. With the exception of Chefoo, and, in a lesser degree, Tien-tsin, no foreign settlement has come directly into contact with the misery which has been described as existing in the interior, nor are any immediate traces of it visible in the neighbourhood of the capital. The apparent cause was disturbance in the usually unfailing regularity of the summer monsoons. The spring and summer of 1876 were marked in the southern maritime provinces, Kwangtung and Fuhkien, and in a less degree also along the coast as far north as Ningpo, by an excessive rain-fall, causing in the two provinces above-named disastrous floods and much destruction of crops. In the north, on the contrary, from the Yangtsze to the neighbourhood of Pekin and thence eastward to the borders of Corea, an unusual drought was experienced.’—Times, 13th March 1878.