Economic history of Ireland

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Ireland's economic history starts at the end of the

To 1700

The first settlers in Ireland were seafarers who survived largely by fishing, hunting and gathering . This was the extent of the Irish economy for around 3500 years – until 4500BC when farming and pottery making became widespread. Sheep, goats, cattle and cereals were imported from Britain and Europe. Wheat and barley were the principal crops cultivated. There was an economic collapse around 2500BC and the population declined from its peak of around 100,000. Metalworking began in Ireland around 2500 BC, with bronze being the principal metal used. Swords, axes, daggers, hatchets, halberds, awls, drinking utensils and horn-shaped trumpets were produced in the period 2500BC – 700BC (the Bronze Age). Mining began also around this time. Mines in Cork and Kerry are believed to have produced as much as 370 tonnes of copper during the Bronze Age. The Celts brought iron technology to Ireland around 350 BC. They established kingdoms and a system of rule, which enabled the economy to be regulated for the first time.

In the 12th century, Ireland was invaded by the

18th century

The major change in the 18th century was the large amount of infrastructural development of Ireland;

In the 18th century English trade with Ireland was the most important branch of English overseas trade¹. Absentee landlords drew off some £800,000 p.a. in farm rents in the early part of the century, rising to £1 million, in an economy that amounted to about £4 million. Completely deforested for timber exports and a temporary iron industry in the course of the 17th century, Irish estates turned to the export of salt beef and pork and butter and hard cheese through the slaughterhouse and port city of Cork, which supplied England, the Royal Navy and the sugar colonies of the West Indies. The bishop of Cloyne wondered "how a foreigner could possibly conceive that half the inhabitants are dying of hunger in a country so abundant in foodstuffs?"². The weather-related famine of 1740–41 caused the death of a third of the population in some areas. Despite this, the population increased from about 2.5 million in 1700 to 5 million in 1800.^[1]

Irish trade was stifled by the

Ireland's economic problems were in part the result of the small size of Irish landholdings. In particular, both the law and social tradition provided for subdivision of land, with all sons inheriting equal shares in a farm, meaning that farms became so small that only one crop, potatoes, could be grown in sufficient amounts to feed a family. Furthermore, many estates, from whom the small farmers rented, were poorly run by absentee landlords and in many cases heavily mortgaged.

When

The famine spawned the second mass wave of Irish immigration to the United States, the first having been the migrations of the 18th century. There was also a large amount of emigration to England, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. This had the long term consequence of creating a large and influential Irish diaspora, particularly in the United States, who supported and financed different Irish independence movements, beginning with the Irish Republican Brotherhood. From 1879 a "Land War" developed, and by 1903 many farmers were able to buy their land, but usually chose small and uneconomic lots.

In east Ulster the

In the 1890s, the Irish agricultural cooperative movement flourished, with bodies such as the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society becoming important elements of the economy.^[5] Cooperatives greatly increased the productivity of Irish agriculture, especially in the dairy sector, while also playing a part in the growth of Irish nationalism.^[6]

A 2022 study, using a newly constructed dataset on Irish industrial output, found, "Irish industrial output grew by an average of 1.3 per cent per annum between 1800 and the outbreak of the First World War... While Ireland did not experience absolute deindustrialisation either before the Famine or afterwards, its industrial growth was disappointing when considered in a comparative perspective."^[7]

History since partition

After the

According to economic historian Kevin O’Rourke, the Irish economy remained underdeveloped for extended periods of time due to its excessive dependence on an underperforming British economy. He argues that European integration, which reduced dependence on the UK, substantially improved the Irish economy.^[8]

Meanwhile, the main northern industries based on shipbuilding, ropes, shirts and textiles declined from 1960, and then more so due to the 1970s 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland, despite government investment in projects such as the Belfast DeLorean plant. In 2005 the northern economy was supported by a net annual "subvention" from London of £5 billion, an amount that has risen over time.^[9]

Conversely, after a bleak period in the 1970s and 1980s, the

• Economy of the Republic of Ireland

Footnotes

1. See: Braudel, F, 1979. (Page Number Needed)
2. See: Plumb, J.H., 1973. (Page Number Needed)

Further reading

• FitzGerald, John and Seán Kenny. 2020. "“Till Debt Do Us Part”: Financial implications of the divorce of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom, 1922–1926." European Review of Economic History.
• Craig, John (1953). "XXI. Ireland". The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948.
  ASIN B0000CIHG7
  .

References

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