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Famine as agricultural catastrophe: the crisis of 1622–4 in east Lancashire

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  • R. W. HOYLE

Abstract

This article argues that historians have paid insufficient attention to the agrarian roots of early modern English famines. While not dismissing the insights arising from entitlements theory, the article takes issue with recent writings that have explained the famine of 1622–3 in north‐west England as an entitlements crisis. It offers new empirical evidence from an estate in east Lancashire to demonstrate the scale of the crisis in the early 1620s, using estate accounts to produce new price data and estimates of productivity. On the basis of oat tithe data, the scale of the shortfall in foodstuffs in the harvest of 1621 is demonstrated as being probably in the region of a third; that of the following year has to be inferred from price data. The evidence shows that the crisis was not limited to the arable economy, but was followed by an extensive restocking of the pastoral economy. The article therefore makes a contribution to the growing interest in weather as an exogenous factor.

Suggested Citation

  • R. W. Hoyle, 2010. "Famine as agricultural catastrophe: the crisis of 1622–4 in east Lancashire," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(4), pages 974-1002, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:63:y:2010:i:4:p:974-1002
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00510.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mokyr, Joel & Ó Gráda, Cormac, 2002. "What do people die of during famines: the Great Irish Famine in comparative perspective," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 339-363, December.
    2. Michael Drake, 1962. "An Elementary Exercise in Parish Register Demography," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 14(3), pages 427-445, April.
    3. Andrew B. Appleby, 1973. "Disease or Famine? Mortality in Cumberland and Westmorland 1580–1640," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 26(3), pages 403-432, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tiia‐Maria Pasanen & Miikka Voutilainen & Jouni Helske & Harri Högmander, 2022. "A Bayesian spatio‐temporal analysis of markets during the Finnish 1860s famine," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1282-1302, November.
    2. Leigh Shaw‐Taylor, 2020. "An introduction to the history of infectious diseases, epidemics and the early phases of the long‐run decline in mortality," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Miikka Voutilainen, 2022. "Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 503-529, May.

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