Introduction

When the literature on post-Famine Ireland is reviewed to seek a link between labour supply and changing agricultural production, it reveals a series of essentially conflicting stories and interpretations. The basic choices are of two sorts: was there a shortage of labour as a consequence of the mid-century crisis which determined changes in production out of tillage and into livestock; or was there a change in the terms of trade between tillage and livestock production which enhanced livestock production, independent initially of labour supply issues, but which then necessarily was labour saving, and therefore in turn led to people leaving the land; or was there a combination of the two? In this chapter this literature is reviewed, before the empirical exercise which confronts some of these issues is presented.

Conflicting models: labour constraint or market forces?

The demonstrable switch in emphasis in Irish agriculture from tillage to pasture after the Famine has been directly associated in official papers with a decline in labour supply. The clearest statement of this is contained in the comment by William Coyne, the Superintendent of Statistics at the Department of Agriculture, in his introduction to the 1901 Agricultural Statistics.

Adverting to the continuing contraction of the arable land of the country – this is, of course, the outstanding feature of these returns, especially when the process is regarded, not from year to year, but as an historical tendency.